/o 


0t  the 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


HO  O  n  ry 

Division  w 


Section  * 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/continentofopporOOclar_O 


The  Continent  of  Opportunity 


AN  AVENUE  OF  IlOYAL  PALMS  IN  RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


The  Continent  of  Opportunity 


The  South  American  Republics — Their 
History,  Their  Resources,  Their  Out¬ 
look.  Together  with  a  Traveller’s  Im¬ 
pressions  of  Present  Day  Conditions 


y  By 

FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Author  of  “  A  New  Way  Around  an  Old 
Worldf  “Fellow  Travellers ,”  “  Training 
the  Church  of  the  Future,”  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 


New  York 

YOUNG  PEOPLE’S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 


Copyright,  1907,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


Second  Edition 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


To 

William  Phillips  Hall% 

well  known  alike  in  religious ,  in  philanthropic 
and  in  business  circles ,  whose  generosity  to  the 
newly  formed  South  American  Christian  En¬ 
deavour  Union  makes  it  possible  to  spread  the 
tidings  of  the  Society ,  by  means  of  the  printed 
page,  throughout  the  “  Continent  of  Oppor¬ 
tunity  f  this  volume  is  gratefully  dedicated  by 

His  friend 


The  Author 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


To  many  kind  friends  in  the  South  American  Republics, 
who  greeted  us  on  our  arrival,  gave  us  Godspeed  on  our 
departure,  and  furnished  me  with  first-hand  information 
about  the  countries  of  their  birth  or  their  adoption,  with¬ 
out  which  this  volume  could  not  have  been  written  ; 

To  the  United  States  ministers  to  Panama,  Bolivia, 
Chile,  and  Argentina ;  to  the  Secretary  of  Legation  at 
Lima,  Peru ;  to  our  Ambassador  to  Brazil ;  and  to  the 
American  Consuls  in  Valparaiso,  Buenos  Ayres  and  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  for  generous  official  and  social  courtesies,  and  for 
much  printed  information  concerning  the  countries  to 
which  they  are  accredited ; 

To  their  Excellencies  the  Presidents  of  the  Republics 
of  Panama,  Peru,  Chile  and  Argentina,  and  to  members 
of  their  cabinets  and  others  in  high  official  station,  for 
kindly  interviews,  and  for  documents  which  helped  me 
materially  in  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  their  peoples  and 
their  countries ; 

To  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  for  a  most  generous 
letter  of  introduction  to  the  diplomatic  and  consular 
representatives  of  the  United  States  in  South  America  ; 

To  T.  C.  Dawson’s  valuable  volumes  on  the  History 
of  South  American  Republics,  published  in  the  “  Story 
of  the  Rations  ”  series  ; 

To  W.  H.  Prescott’s  undying  work  on  u  The  Conquest 
of  Peru”  ; 


7 


8 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


To  books  of  travel  by  Carpenter,  Pepper,  Tucker  and 
others  with  whose  stories  of  journeying  by  land  and  sea  I 
compared  and  sometimes  revised  my  own  impressions  ; 

To  many  volumes  relating  to  the  missionary  operations 
of  various  societies,  the  reports  of  the  American  and  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Societies,  the  volume  entitled, 
u  Protestant  Missions  in  South  America,”  Miss  Guinness’s 
‘ 1  Neglected  Continent,”  and  many  pamphlets  and  leaflets 
which  have  enabled  me  to  supplement  and  correct  with 
the  wisdom  and  experience  of  others  my  own  impressions 
of  the  past  and  present  religious  condition  of  South 
America  ; 

To  the  publishers  of  The  Independent ,  The  Congrega¬ 
tionalism  The  Interior ,  The  Advance ,  The  Missionary  Re¬ 
view  of  the  World ,  The  Journal  of  Education  and  The  Chris¬ 
tian  Endeavor  World ,  for  permission  to  republish  some 
material  which  has  appeared  in  their  columns. 


CONTENTS 


I.  By  Way  of  Introduction  .  .  .  13 

II.  South  America — a  Country  in  the  Making  17 

III.  The  Smallest  Republic  in  the  World  .  26 

IV.  Contradictions  and  Contrasts  in  the 

Canal  Zone . 34 

V.  The  Republic  of  Colombia  ...  43 

VI.  Ecuador,  the  Republic  of  the  Equator  .  51 

VII.  Curiosities  of  Travel  on  the  West  Coast  $9 

VIII.  The  Empire  of  the  Incas  ....  66 

IX.  Peru,  Yesterday  and  To-Day  ...  76 

X.  Peru  Redivivus . 83 

XI.  Lima,  the  Paris  of  the  South  ...  94 

XII.  An  Adventure  in  the  High  Andes  .  .  100 

XIII.  Where  the  Stars  Sit  for  Their  Portraits  107 

XIV.  Bolivia,  the  Country  of  the  Great  Pla¬ 

teau  . 1 14 

XV.  The  Switzerland  of  South  America  .  12 1 

XVI.  The  Hermit  Republic  of  the  Andes  .  .130 

XVII.  Our  Window  in  La  Paz  ....  139 

XVIII.  Ancient  and  Modern  Chile  .  .  .147 

XIX.  The  Wealth  of  Chile  .  .  .  .155 

XX.  Valparaiso — The  Earthquake-Stricken  .  165 

XXI.  The  Jamestown  of  South  America  .  174 

XXII.  The  Famous  Journey  Across  the  Andes  .  181 

9 


10 


CONTENTS 


XXIII.  Argentina,  the  Land  of  the  Limitless 

Pampas . 190 

XXIV.  A  Prosperous  Republic  .  .  .  200 

XXV.  Peculiarities  of  Buenos  Ayres  .  .  208 

XXVI.  Uruguay  and  the  Uruguayans  .  .  214 

XXVII.  Paraguay,  the  Isolated  .  .  .221 

XXVIII.  Brazil,  the  Boundless  .  .  .  229 

XXIX.  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  City  Beautiful  .  240 

XXX.  The  World’s  Coffee  Cup  and  How  it 

is  Filled . 249 

XXXI.  A  Thousand  Miles  in  Brazil  .  .2 57 

XXXII.  Venezuela,  the  Turbulent  Republic 

of  the  North . 263 

XXXIII.  The  Three  Guianas  .  .  .  .271 

XXXIV.  With  the  Presidents  of  Four  Repub¬ 
lics  . 278 

XXXV.  How  We  Journeyed  ....  286 

XXXVI.  The  Progress  of  Education  .  .  295 

XXXVII.  The  Inscrutable  Politics  of  South 

America . 304 

XXXVIII.  South  America  as  a  Mission  Field  .  31 1 

XXXIX.  A  Bird’s-eye  View  of  Protestant  Mis¬ 
sions  . 320 

XL.  Lights  and  Shadows  on  the  Map  .  330 

Statistical  Tables  .  .  .  -338 

Index . 343 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facing  Page 

An  Avenue  of  Royal  Palms  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  -  -  Title 

The  Cathedral  of  Panama  ------  26 

A  Steam  Shovel  at  Work  on  the  Canal  40 

Culebra  Cut,  Part  of  the  Old  French  Excavation  -  40 

Some  Native  Panamanians  ------  46 

The  Throne  of  the  Ancient  Incas  66 

Modern  Descendants  of  Incas  -----  66 

An  Indian  of  Chile  -  -  -  -  -  -  -148 

A  Bolivian  Indian  -  -  -  -  -  -  -148 

A  Market  Scene  in  Chile  -  -  -  -  -  152 

Along  the  Roadside  in  Chile . 160 

In  the  Straits  of  Magellan  -  -  -  -  160 

The  Entrance  to  “  Santa  Lucia  ”  -  -  -  -  178 

The  Universal  Costume  of  the  Women  of  Chile  on 

Good  Friday  -  -  -  -  -  -  -178 

The  Christ  of  the  Andes  -  -  -  -  -  -  186 

An  Argentine  Farmhouse  -  -  -  -  -  -  190 

Argentine  Indians  -  -  -  -  -  -  -190 

Rio  Harbour  and  City  as  Seen  from  Corcovado  -  -  240 

The  t(  Finger  of  God”  Near  Rio  de  Janeiro  -  -  242 

The  Most  Beautiful  Street  in  the  World  -  -  -  246 

Drying  Coffee  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  252 

An  Indian  Alcade  Away  in  the  Sierras  -  -  -  314 

The  Altar  at  the  Doorway  of  the  Jesuit  Church, 

Arequipa,  Peru  »  - . 314 

Map  of  South  America  -  -  -  -  -  ‘33^ 


11 


I 


BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION 

THE  material  for  this  volume  was  gathered  dur¬ 
ing  a  five  months’  journey  to  South  America  in 
the  interests  of  the  Christian  Endeavour  move¬ 
ment  which  the  author  undertook  early  in  1907  at  the 
invitation  of  Christian  workers  in  different  countries. 

He  crossed  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  sailed  down  the 
west  coast  from  Panama  to  Valparaiso,  touching  at  many 
ports.  From  Valparaiso  he  crossed  the  continent  by  the 
famous  trans-  Andean  route  to  Buenos  Ayres.  Thence  he 
sailed  to  Montevideo  and  thence  to  Santos  and  Eio  de 
Janeiro,  and,  after  spending  nearly  a  month  in  Brazil, 
sailed  for  Boston  by  the  longest  but  most  available  route, 
via  Portugal,  Spain  and  England. 

In  the  course  of  this  journey  he  visited  eight  of  the 
eleven  republics  of  South  America,  namely,  Panama, 
Ecuador,  Peru,  Bolivia,  Chile,  Argentina,  Uruguay  and 
Brazil. 

During  his  long  sea  voyages  of  more  than  fifteen  thou¬ 
sand  miles,  he  had  the  opportunity  of  supplementing  his 
own  observations  by  reading  many  volumes  on  South 
American  history  and  travel,  and,  while  on  shore,  enjoyed 
unusual  privileges  in  meeting  people  of  all  walks  of  life, 
from  the  presidents  of  several  of  the  republics  to  the  hum¬ 
blest  citizens.  He  lived  not  only  in  hotels  and  on  railway 
trains  but  in  the  homes  of  many  of  the  people,  and 
sought  from  all  sources  that  which  might  be  of  interest 
and  profit  to  his  readers. 

During  these  months  of  travel  and  residence  he  learned 
that  South  America  is  peculiarly  a  country  of  lights  and 

13 


14  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


shadows.  It  is  possible  for  the  traveller  to  bask  in  the 
sunlight,  or  dwell  altogether  in  the  shadow.  A  writer  is 
tempted  to  make  his  picture  too  bright  or  too  dark  ac¬ 
cording  to  his  own  personal  equation,  or  perhaps  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  section  of  the  continent  he  visits. 

The  writer  who  knows  only  the  northern  half  of  South 
America  would  be  likely  to  declare  the  continent  to  be 
the  most  turbulent,  unprogressive  and  benighted  of  any 
of  the  five.  The  traveller  who  visits  only  the  southern 
half,  especially  if  he  confines  himself  largely  to  the  great 
cities,  will  be  likely  to  declare  that  South  America  stands 
near  the  head  of  the  progressive  continents. 

I  have  read  some  of  the  wildest  claims  for  South 
America,  and  I  have  seen  it,  on  the  other  hand,  painted 
in  colours  so  dark  that  a  Bushman  or  a  Hottentot  would 
be  ashamed  to  own  it  as  his  abode.  For  instance,  a 
recent  writer  on  Ecuador  describes  it  as  an  earthly  para¬ 
dise,  a  paradise  before  the  fall,  undisturbed  by  any  de¬ 
ceitful  serpent.  The  climate,  the  people,  the  productions, 
the  means  of  communication,  are  all  perfect,  and  even  the 
hens  are  such  prolific  layers  that  “the  owners  have  to 
give  them  medicine  to  prevent  an  over-production  of 
eggs.”  This  statement  gives  the  impression  that  the 
writer,  all  through  his  article,  is  making  game  of  his 
readers,  and  is  endeavouring  to  find  out  how  gullible  they 
are,  for  Ecuador  is  a  land  of  pestilence  and  disease,  of 
revolution  and  political  graft,  of  ignorance  and  supersti¬ 
tion  beyond  almost  any  South  American  country. 

On  the  other  hand  I  have  read  magazine  articles  on 
Argentina  and  Brazil,  written  in  the  most  lurid  style  of 
our  own  professional  “muck-rakers,”  describing  their 
weaknesses  and  mistakes,  and  making  no  mention  of  their 
wonderful  progress,  their  present  glories  and  the  more 
glorious  future  that  is  opening  before  them.  Such  ar¬ 
ticles  deceive  only  those  who  are  utterly  ignorant  of 


BY  WAY  OF  INTRODUCTION 


15 


South  American  affairs,  but  naturally  those  who  have  not 
studied  the  situation  on  the  ground,  cannot  refute  these 
absurdities. 

The  object  of  this  volume  is  to  give,  so  far  as  its  brief 
compass  and  the  author’s  ability  will  allow,  a  compre¬ 
hensive  view  of  the  countries  and  peoples  of  South 
America,  their  history,  their  possibilities,  their  chief  re¬ 
sources,  their  intellectual  and  religious  life,  together  with 
a  traveller’s  impressions  of  present  day  conditions. 

South  America  is  preeminently  a  country  which  one 
cannot  treat  as  a  whole.  It  would  be  no  more  mislead¬ 
ing  to  consider  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  or  Spain 
and  Great  Britain,  as  one  country,  than  to  write  of  Ven¬ 
ezuela  and  Argentina  as  having  a  common  history  and 
destiny  because  they  happen  to  occupy  the  territory  of 
the  same  continent.  Indeed,  every  one  of  the  eleven  re¬ 
publics,  small  and  insignificant  as  some  of  them  are,  has 
its  own  individuality  and  its  own  interesting  history  and 
development. 

To  the  average  foreigner  all  the  republics,  except 
Brazil,  seem  to  have  the  same  genesis : — a  settlement  of 
adventurers,  long  centuries  of  exploitation  by  Spanish 
extortioners,  followed  by  liberation  from  the  Spanish 
yoke  and  a  turbulent  emergence  into  a  more  or  less  stable 
national  life.  Though  this  outline  is  true  of  them  all  in 
a  general  way,  it  is  too  meagre  and  lacking  in  details  to 
satisfy  one  who  desires  any  real  knowledge  of  South 
America  and  South  Americans.  He  who  sympathetically 
studies  these  countries  will  be  surprised  to  find  the  many 
currents  and  cross-currents  of  history  which  give  to  each 
land  its  own  individuality.  This  history  throws  light 
upon  the  present  conditions  and  character  of  the  peoples 
as  nothing  else  can  do. 

For  the  sake  of  bringing  out  the  individual  character¬ 
istics  of  these  republics  a  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  his- 


16 


THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


tory  and  present  condition  of  each.  Other  chapters  give 
the  writer’s  view  of  the  resources,  recent  development 
and  future  outlook  of  many  of  the  republics,  while  still 
others  describe  the  politics,  educational  features,  modes 
of  travel,  and  religion  of  the  people. 

The  writer  in  this  volume,  as  in  his  journey,  begins 
with  the  Republic  of  Panama,  follows  down  the  west 
coast,  crosses  the  Andes,  and  then  travels  north  describ¬ 
ing  the  Republics  of  the  East  Coast  and  their  character¬ 
istics. 

While  the  book  is  written  from  a  Christian  standpoint, 
and  some  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  religious  and 
evangelistic  features  of  the  country,  it  does  not  profess  to 
give  an  exhaustive  review  of  the  missionary  situation  in 
South  America.  It  would  take  several  volumes  of  this 
size  to  accomplish  that  task,  but  the  author  hopes  that 
enough  has  been  written  to  show  the  value  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  work  already  accomplished,  and  to  indicate  that  in 
respect  to  Protestant  missionary  effort,  South  America  is 
no  longer  the  u  Neglected  Continent,”  but  the  Continent  of 
Opportunity. 

I  have  chosen  my  title  as  containing  the  one  word  that 
describes  most  accurately  the  present  and  the  future  of 
South  America.  In  all  material  matters,  as  well  as  in 
matters  more  spiritual,  in  her  mines  and  manufactures, 
in  her  forests  and  fisheries,  in  her  commerce  and  agricul¬ 
ture,  in  her  schools  and  churches,  in  her  politics  and 
business,  South  America  is  to-day  preeminently  the 
Continent  of  Opportunity. 


II 


SOUTH  AMERICA— A  COUNTRY  IN  THE  MAKING 


A.  Continent  with  a  Future — The  Climate  of  South  America — West 
America  and  East  America— Physical  Features  on  a  Gigantic  Scale- 
South  America’s  Greatest  Handicap — Her  Great  Men— No  Plymouth 
Rock— A  Cruel  Triumvirate— Simon  Bolivar— A.  Curiosity  in  Con¬ 
stitutions— A  Bright  Outlook. 


OUTH  AMERICA  is  a  country  in  the  making. 


Some  parts  of  it,  politically,  are  yet  without  form 


and  void.  In  some  parts  order  has  come  out  of 
chaos,  while  other  sections  are  still  in  the  birth  throes  of 
revolution  and  evolution. 

But  South  America  is  a  continent  with  a  future.  It  is 
a  land  of  possibilities  and  opportunities. 

It  is  interesting  to  almost  every  class  of  men.  To  the 
student  of  history  it  presents  a  fascinating  field  which 
has  allured  some  of  our  greatest  historians.  The  story 
of  the  Incas  and  the  Chibchas  of  Colombia,  those  wonder¬ 
ful  nations  that,  without  knowledge  of  each  other  or  the 
rest  of  the  civilized  world,  attained  such  a  high  and 
complicated  civilization  of  their  own,  never  loses  its 
charm. 

To  the  archaeologist  the  ruins  of  Cuzco  and  Quito  and  a 
score  of  other  places  are  of  supreme  interest. 

To  the  student  of  political  science  the  history  of  the 
brutal  Spanish  invasion  and  the  brutal  Spanish  rule,  as 
well  as  the  innumerable  failures  and  more  recent  suc¬ 
cesses  of  the  modern  republics  are  constant  warnings  of 
11  how  not  to  do  it.” 

The  naturalist  will  find  in  South  America  birds  and 


17 


18  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


beasts,  fish  and  reptiles,  shrubs  and  trees  which  grow  in 
no  other  part  of  the  world. 

The  entomologist  will  not  lack  for  bugs, — the  most 
beautiful  and  the  most  noxious  that  crawl  or  fly. 

The  geologist  will  find  a  country  rich  in  minerals  of 
every  description. 

The  devout  man  will  find  among  the  people  professing 
the  religion  of  the  ancient  as  well  as  the  modern  South 
Americans,  “a  feeling  after  God,  if  haply  they  may  find 
Him,”  and,  amid  all  the  superstition  and  ignorance  of 
ancient  and  modern  faiths,  he  recognizes  the  fact  that 
man  is  u  incurably  religious,”  and  rejoices  in  the  clearer 
light  of  a  rational  Biblical  faith  that  is  beginning  to  shine 
at  many  points  in  the  great  South  land. 

Before  considering  the  individual  republics  into  which 
South  America  is  divided,  it  is  interesting  to  call  to  mind 
some  geographical  and  historical  facts  which  account  in 
large  measure  for  the  backward  state  of  civilization 
which  one  finds  in  some  parts  of  this  continent,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  more  progressive  twin  continent  of  the 
north. 

Though  almost  as  large  in  territory  as  North  America, 
the  greater  part  of  South  America  lies  in  the  tropics, 
while  North  America  lies  almost  wholly  within  the 
temperate  and  Arctic  zones.  To  speak  roughly,  North 
America  is  a  cold  country  and  South  America  a  hot 
country,  and,  in  recent  centuries  at  least,  however  it  was 
with  earlier  civilizations,  extreme  heat  has  been  a  handi¬ 
cap  to  progress.  To  be  sure,  the  vast  plains  of  Argentina, 
the  long  seacoast  of  Chile  and  the  table-lands  of  Peru, 
Ecuador,  Bolivia,  Colombia,  Venezuela  and  Brazil  have 
a  comfortable  and  equable  climate,  but  the  approach  to 
the  plateaus  of  the  north  is  through  steaming,  miasmatic 
lowlands  which  have  proved  a  terrible  barrier  to  civiliza¬ 
tion. 


SOUTH  AMEEICA 


19 


It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  passing  how  much  farther 
east  the  southern  continent  lies  than  the  northern.  The 
two  might  with  almost  as  much  propriety  be  named  West 
America  and  East  America  as  North  and  South  America. 
Payta,  the  most  western  town  in  South  America,  is  about 
the  same  longitude  as  Cleveland,  while  Valparaiso,  and 
almost  the  whole  of  the  Peruvian,  Chilean  and  Patagonian 
coast,  are  nearly  on  the  same  longitudinal  line  as  New 
York.  Indeed,  there  is  a  difference  of  but  three  or  four 
minutes  in  time  between  Valparaiso  and  New  York  City. 
On  the  other  side,  Brazil  juts  far  out  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  towards  Africa,  and  there  the  Atlantic  is  only 
about  half  as  wide  from  shore  to  shore  as  in  the  north. 

The  physical  features  of  South  America  are  on  a  more 
gigantic  scale  than  in  North  America.  Its  mountains  as 
a  rule  are  higher,  its  rivers  broader  and  deeper,  its  forests 
more  impenetrable,  and  all  these  features  have  presented 
obstacles  to  man  which  have  daunted  and  delayed,  if 
they  have  not  utterly  discouraged  him  in  the  conquest  of 
the  country.  It  is  as  though  this  continent  were  waiting 
for  a  later  race  of  giants  who,  with  scientific  and  me¬ 
chanical  skill  superior  to  any  yet  achieved,  shall  be  able 
to  subdue  this  richest  of  continents,  which  yet  guards  her 
riches  so  securely. 

The  greatest  handicap  of  South  America,  however,  in 
comparison  with  North  America,  has  come  from  the 
character  and  actuating  motives  of  her  first  European 
occupants,  and  it  takes  a  continent  many  a  century  to 
overcome  the  wrong  bias  given  by  the  original  settlers. 

“Gold,  gold,  gold,  gold, 

Hard  and  yellow,  bright  and  cold,” 

brought  the  first  settlers  to  the  shores  of  South  America. 
The  religious  motive,  when  present,  was  largely  overlaid 
with  the  desire  for  conquest  and  riches,  and  was  often 


20  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


used  as  a  cloak  for  the  most  horrible  atrocities,  as  when 
the  Friar  Yalverde  betrayed  Atahuallpa,  the  great  em¬ 
peror  of  the  Incas  who  had  received  Pizarro  and  his 
cohorts  so  hospitably.  With  a  cross  in  one  hand  and  a 
Bible  in  the  other,  Yalverde  demanded  that  Atahuallpa 
should  declare  himself  a  subject  of  the  King  of  Spain 
and  receive  baptism. 

When  the  mighty  emperor  of  Peru  threw  down  the 
book  with  indignant  scorn  at  this  outrageous  demand, 
the  friar  cried  out:  “ Fall  on,  Castilians,  I  absolve  you.” 
“Into  the  helpless  crowd,”  we  are  told,  “burst  a  mur¬ 
derous  fire  from  the  doors  of  the  houses  all  around,  where 
the  Spaniards  had  previously  been  stationed.  Aghast 
and  bewildered  by  this  display  of  powers  which  to  them 
seemed  necromantic,  the  survivors  nevertheless  manfully 
stood  to  the  attack  of  the  mail-clad  horsemen  who  rode 
into  the  huddled  mass,  ferociously  slashing  and  slaugh¬ 
tering.  The  Indians  strove  desperately  to  drag  the 
Spaniards  from  the  horses  with  their  naked  hands,  and 
interposed  a  living  wall  of  human  flesh  between  the 
murderers  and  their  beloved  sovereign.  At  length 
Pizarro’ s  own  hands  snatched  Atahuallpa  from  the  litter. 
The  Indian  soldiers  outside,  hearing  the  firearms  and  the 
noise  of  the  struggle,  tried  to  force  their  way  through  the 
square,  but  the  Spanish  musketry  and  cannon  mowed 
them  down  by  the  hundreds,  and  they  fled  before  the 
charges  of  the  cavalry,  dispersing  in  the  twilight.”  1 

This  quotation  is  only  one  of  hundreds  that  might  be 
made  from  the  history  of  South  America  to  show  the 
perfidious  and  utterly  inhuman  way  in  which  religion 
was  made  the  handmaid  of  cruelty,  treachery  and  avarice. 
South  America  had  no  Mayflower ,  she  has  no  Plymouth 
Rock,  and  in  these  two  facts  can  be  summed  up  largely 
the  difference  between  the  two  halves  of  America,  re* 
Dawson’s  “South  American  Republics.” 


SOUTH  AMERICA 


21 


ligiously,  educationally,  industrially.  There  has  been 
little  of  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  leaven  at  work  in  the 
meal  of  the  southern  continent,  until  a  comparatively  re¬ 
cent  date.  But  the  leaven  has  been  introduced  of  late, 
and  has  already  begun  to  bring  about  its  blessed  and 
inevitable  results. 

The  character  of  the  great  public  men  of  the  two  con¬ 
tinents  has  been  another  determining  factor  in  the  civili¬ 
zation  of  North  and  South  America.  North  America  has 
had  Franklin,  Washington,  Lincoln,  and  many  smaller 
Franklins,  Washingtons  and  Lincolns.  South  America 
has  had  Pizarro,  Almagro,  and  Bolivar,  and  many 
smaller  adventurers  of  the  same  type,  whose  selfish  lust 
for  gold  and  power  has  cursed  the  land  in  the  early  days 
of  European  occupation. 

If  there  is  any  worthy  exception  in  this  cruel  triumvi¬ 
rate  who  showed  a  spark  of  unselfish  patriotism,  it  is 
Simon  Bolivar,  sometimes  called  the  Liberator.  He  cer¬ 
tainly  aided  his  own  country,  Venezuela,  and  most  of  the 
other  countries  of  South  America  to  throw  off  the  intoler¬ 
able  Spanish  yoke,  but  he  imposed  or  tried  to  impose  a 
yoke  of  his  own,  almost  as  galling,  and  his  character 
seems  to  have  lacked  the  high  moral  motives  and  the 
“saving  common  sense”  which  marked  each  one  of  the 
great  North  American  triumvirate.  His  character  has 
been  thus  described  by  Mr.  Dawson  in  his  careful  history 
of  the  South  American  republics  :  “From  his  earliest 
childhood  a  little  feudal  lord,  owing  obedience  to  no  par¬ 
ent  (he  was  left  an  orphan  at  three  years  of  age)  with 
hundreds  of  slaves  at  his  orders,  his  precocious  intelli¬ 
gence  the  object  of  that  ruinous  admiration  with  which 
thoughtless  strangers  and  servants  spoil  a  rich  and  lonely 
child,  his  naturally  strong  will  uncurbed  by  any  discip¬ 
line,  he  grew  into  manhood — arrogant,  uncompromising, 
solitary,  a  deep  thinker,  wildly  ambitious,  marvellously 


22  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


brilliant,  though  lacking  steady  common  sense,  blindly 
confident  in  his  own  moral  and  intellectual  infallibility, 
firmly  convinced  that  he  was  destined  for  vague  great 
things,  inordinately  fond  of  honours  and  praise,  and  ut¬ 
terly  unable  to  distinguish  his  desires  of  gratifying  selfish 
ambitions,  and  his  yeasty  notions  of  regenerating  man¬ 
kind.” 

Such  was  doubtless  the  character,  as  the  stories  of  his 
varied  adventures  prove,  of  the  most  widely  heralded  he¬ 
roic  figure  of  modern  South  America.  It  is  not  a  model 
on  which  the  youth  of  a  continent  could  safely  shape  their 
lives. 

Preeminently,  too,  the  history  of  South  America  has 
been  the  history  of  carnage  and  bloodshed.  There  is  not 
another  continent  among  all  the  six,  if  we  count  Aus¬ 
tralia  as  one,  which  has  been  so  drenched  in  blood  as 
South  America.  Australia  has  had  no  war  and  no  blood¬ 
shed.  Large  sections  of  Asia,  within  historic  times,  have 
been  free  from  carnage  on  a  great  scale.  Our  own  conti¬ 
nent,  even  remembering  our  two  great  wars,  has  suffered 
but  little  compared  with  South  America. 

Even  before  the  Spanish  conquests,  the  Incas,  though 
on  the  whole  a  peaceful  race,  imposed  their  rule  at  the 
point  of  the  sword  and  spear,  on  surrounding  tribes, 
while  during  and  since  the  Spanish  conquest  blood  has 
flowed  like  water  from  Darien  to  Cape  Horn.  Every 
revolution  in  the  olden  times,  and  revolutions  have  been 
numbered  by  hundreds,  was  a  gory  one,  and  in  some  the 
slaughter  has  been  incredible,  so  that  some  sections  of 
South  America  have  fewer  inhabitants  than  they  had 
four  centuries  ago. 

The  siege  of  Cartegena  in  Colombia,  in  1815,  by  Mar¬ 
shall  Morillo,  one  of  Spain’s  greatest  generals,  is  thus  de¬ 
scribed  :  “The  besiegers  suffered  terribly  in  the  pesti¬ 
lential  swamps,  but  the  defenders  were  reduced  to  the 


SOUTH  AMERICA 


23 


most  horrible  extremities,  during  four  months  and  a  half. 
The  provisions  ran  out ;  fevers  decimated  the  people  ; 
the  starving  garrison  ate  rats  and  hides  ;  sentinels  fell 
dead  at  their  posts  ;  the  commander  drove  out  of  the  city- 
two  thousand  old  men,  women  and  children,  and  of  this 
procession  of  spectres  only  a  few  reached  the  Spanish 
line.  Finally  the  surviving  soldiers  escaped  by  boats  in 
the  midst  of  a  storm  which  dispersed  the  Spanish  squad¬ 
ron,  and  Morillo  entered  a  deserted  city  where  the  very 
air  was  poisoned  by  the  rotting  bodies  of  famished  people. 
It  is  calculated  that  six  thousand  persons  died  of  hunger 
and  disease.” 

Yet  this  was  only  a  minor  engagement ;  thousands  of 
similar  tales  might  be  told,  each  one  vying  with  every 
other  for  gruesome  slaughter.  In  one  of  the  most  recent 
civil  wars  in  Colombia  which  took  place  between  1899 
and  1902,  largely  on  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  it  is  esti¬ 
mated  that  200  armed  encounters  took  place,  and  30,000 
Colombians  were  slain, — a  very  considerable  percentage 
of  the  whole  population.  So  numerous  have  been  these 
bloody  revolutions  that  history  will  probably  never  re¬ 
cord  half  of  them  in  detail. 

Another  fact,  if  borne  in  mind,  will  help  us  to  under¬ 
stand  the  history  and  present  condition  of  South  America, 
and  this  is  that  feudalism  has  always  been  contending 
with  monarchy ;  extreme  states’  rights  ideas  with  auto¬ 
crats  of  personal  force  and  power,  who  have  constantly 
tried  to  play  the  absolute  tyrant. 

When  Spain  conquered  the  Incas,  and  practically  the 
whole  of  South  America  fell  into  her  lap  and  that  of  her 
sister  nation  Portugal,  the  Iberian  peninsula  was  just 
emerging  from  feudalism.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were 
practically  the  first  successful  exponents  of  a  strong  cen¬ 
tralized  government.  The  Spanish  generals  and  conquer¬ 
ors  brought  feudal  ideas  with  them,  and  these  ideas  in 


24  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


the  course  of  the  centuries  developed  into  the  extreme  re¬ 
publicanism,  tempered  by  assassination  and  revolution, 
which  has  characterized  the  South  America  of  the  last 
century. 

Bolivar  dreamed  of  a  United  States  of  South  America 
and  worked  for  it.  At  one  time  his  dream  seemed  about 
to  be  realized,  but  Venezuela,  Colombia,  Ecuador  and  Peru 
fell  apart,  and  even  his  genius  and  daring  were  not  able 
to  bring  them  together.  The  “  United  States  of  South 
America  ”  seem  as  far  from  realization  as  in  the  days  of 
Pizarro  or  Bolivar. 

States’  rights  have  sometimes  been  carried  to  an  extreme 
and  absurd  length.  Some  fifty  years  ago  Colombia,  then 
called  New  Granada,  adopted  a  new  constitution,  the  sixth 
it  had  enjoyed  in  thirty  years.  The  name  was  changed  to 
“United  States  of  Colombia*”  and  the  nation  was  com¬ 
posed  of  nine  independent  states.  One  article  of  the  con¬ 
stitution  declared  that  “  when  one  sovereign  state  of  the 
union  shall  be  at  war  with  another,  or  the  citizens  of  any 
state  shall  be  at  war  among  themselves,  the  national  gov¬ 
ernment  is  obligated  to  preserve  the  strictest  neutrality.” 

The  result  of  such  a  constitution  among  such  a  people 
could  easily  be  foretold,  and  civil  war  succeeded  civil 
war  in  quick  succession  for  two  and  twenty  years,  until 
tired  of  extreme  states’  rights,  in  1885,  under  a  strong 
president,  Rafael  Nunez,  who  was  dictator  in  all  but  name, 
the  “  United  States  of  Colombia  ”  became  the  “  Republic 
of  Colombia,”  with  a  strong  centralized  government,  and 
the  sovereignty  of  the  individual  states  was  expressly  de¬ 
nied  in  the  new  constitution. 

Another  provision  of  the  earlier  constitution  was  that 
1 1  in  naming  the  eight  generals  spoken  of  by  the  consti¬ 
tution  from  whom  must  be  chosen  the  commander- in- chief 
of  the  army,  all  Colombians  over  twenty-one  shall  be  con¬ 
sidered  generals  of  the  republic.”  This  provision  would 


SOUTH  AMERICA 


25 


surely  have  more  than  satisfied  the  alleged  ambitions  of 
the  Colonels  of  Kentucky. 

This  early  bias  in  favour  of  feudalism,  and  this  constant 
conflict  between  individual  and  state  rights  and  the  ambi¬ 
tions  of  selfish  dictators,  accounts  for  the  seesawing  of  many 
of  the  republics  from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  and  for 
the  political  turmoil  and  unrest  which  have  been  the  bane 
of  most  of  the  South  American  countries. 

If  this  picture  of  greed,  ambition  and  bloodshed,  of 
unscrupulous  and  cruel  leaders,  seems  hopeless  and  dark, 
let  us  remember  that,  nevertheless,  South  America  is  a 
land  of  vast  resources,  that  she  has  given  to  the  rest  of 
the  world  some  of  our  most  valuable  foods  and  drugs, 
like  the  potato,  Indian  corn,  quinine  and  peruvian  bark  ; 
that  her  mines  are  unexhausted  and  her  forests  scarcely 
touched  ;  that  moral  and  spiritual  light  has  dawned  upon 
many  sections ;  that  freedom  of  religious  thought  and 
worship  has  been  secured  in  almost  every  republic ;  that 
education  is  being  more  and  more  prized  and  extended 
to  the  common  people ;  that  apparently  stable  govern¬ 
ments  have  been  established  in  more  than  half  the  conti¬ 
nent, — in  a  word,  that  the  light  is  breaking  everywhere, 
and  that  South  America  is  after  all  the  great  continent 
of  Opportunity  and  Possibility. 


I 


m 


THE  SMALLEST  REPUBLIC  IN  THE  WORLD  1 

Something  About  Panama ,  Past,  Present ,  and  Future 

The  Smallest  Republic  but  not  the  Least — The  Number  of  Panamanians 
—An  Important  Bit  of  Territory — Outside  of  the  Canal  Zone — Cu¬ 
rious  Golden  Treasures— The  Children’s  Place  in  Ancient  Panama — 
Within  the  Canal  Zone— The  Rights  of  the  United  States— Colonel 
Gorgas,  the  Sanitary  Saviour  of  Panama— A  Mixed  Population— The 
President  of  the  Republic— Our  American  Minister. 


PROMINENT  American  official  is  reported 


to  have  brought  greetings,  when  he  came  to 


JL  J L  Panama,  from  u  the  largest  Republic  in  the 
world  to  the  smallest  Republic  in  the  world.  ”  Then  he 
smoothed  over  the  wounded  dignity  of  the  Panamanians 
by  explaining  that,  though  small  in  population,  Panama 
was  great  in  possibilities,  and  great  in  strategic  impor¬ 
tance,  and  thus  saved  and  salved  their  sensitive  feelings. 

Panama  is  certainly  not  large  geographically,  for  it 
stretches  only  from  Colombia  on  the  one  side  to  Costa 
Rica  on  the  other,  and  is  a  narrow,  contorted  ribbon  of 
land  that  seems  to  serve  principally  to  connect  North  and 
South  America,  and  to  afford  a  tremendous  barrier  to  the 
navies  of  the  world,  compelling  them  to  sail  10, 000  miles 
to  get  around  to  a  spot  less  than  fifty  miles  away  as  the 

1  The  four  chapters  on  Panama  and  the  Canal  Zone  were  written  on 
the  spot  in  February  and  March,  1907.  It  is  believed  that  they  por¬ 
trayed  accurately  the  condition  of  things  as  they  existed  then. 
Naturally,  conditions  rapidly  change  from  year  to  year,  and  even 
from  month  to  month,  but  a  description  of  the  Canal  Zone  as  seen  by 
a  traveller  near  the  beginning  of  the  American  occupation  will  always 
have  an  interest  of  its  own. 


26 


THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  PANAMA. 


THE  SMALLEST  REPUBLIC  IN  THE  WORLD  27 


crow  flies.  To  travel  200  miles  south  and  north  to  make 
less  than  one  rod  to  the  east  has  been  the  fate  hitherto  of 
travellers  going  around  the  Horn,  for,  strange  to  say, 
when  they  got  to  Panama,  after  sailing  around  South 
America  from  Colon,  they  found  themselves  east  of  the 
point  from  which  they  started,  for  it  is  an  actual  fact 
that  Panama  on  the  Pacific  coast  is  east  of  Colon  on  the 
Atlantic,  owing  to  the  contortions  of  the  coast. 

The  population  of  Panama  is  far  smaller  than  even  its 
territory  would  indicate.  Three  hundred  thousand  is  the 
liberal  estimate  made  by  the  Panamanians,  which,  very 
likely,  would  have  to  be  cut  down  if  a  careful  census  were 
made.  Under  90,000  of  these  300,000  are  in  the  Canal 
Zone,  and  in  the  two  cities  of  Panama  and  Colon  which 
lie  at  either  end  of  the  Zone,  though  just  outside  of  it. 
Indian  half-breeds  largely  occupy  the  interior,  which  is 
in  part  an  impenetrable  jungle,  with  a  few  footpaths 
winding  through  it,  and  a  few  settlements  of  small  im¬ 
portance. 

But,  if  Panama  cannot  boast  very  much  in  the  way  of 
territory  or  population,  it  has  occupied  no  small  place  in 
the  eye  of  the  world  for  the  last  400  years.  Some  one  has 
well  said  that  “  since  the  days  of  Greece’s  glory  no  such 
small  strip  of  soil  as  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  has  gained 
equal  distinction.  It  has  been  the  scene  of  stirring  ad¬ 
venture  and  the  site  of  the  wealthiest  city  in  the  world. 
It  has  been  the  subject  of  epoch-making  diplomacy  and  a 
sphere  of  political  disturbance.  It  is  the  seat  of  the 
greatest  engineering  enterprise  in  history  ;  an  enterprise 
which  is  destined  largely  to  revolutionize  the  commerce 
of  the  world  and,  more  than  any  modern  factor,  to  influ¬ 
ence  the  fortunes  of  the  nations.” 

It  is  much  to  say  all  that  truthfully  of  any  country,  big 
or  little,  but  it  can  all  be  said  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

Moreover,  it  is  destined  to  be  a  better,  busier,  if  not  a 


28  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


bigger,  Isthmus  in  the  future  than  ever  it  has  been  in 
the  past. 

So  exclusively  has  public  attention  been  riveted  upon 
that  little  strip  of  territory  ten  miles  wide,  called  the 
Canal  Zone,  that  the  rest  of  Panama  is  as  unknown  as 
Patagonia,  and  yet  it  is  by  no  means  uninteresting.  It  is 
divided  into  the  provinces  of  Colon,  Panama,  Darien, 
Chiriqui,  and  Yeragua,  and  it  is  said  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  two  last  named  provinces  are  far  better  speci¬ 
mens  of  the  native  Panamanian  than  many  of  those  one 
meets  in  the  two  large  cities  of  the  Canal  provinces, 
Panama  and  Colon,  into  which  the  riffraff  of  the  country 
largely  drifts. 

Chiriqui  is  evidently  the  most  interesting  of  these  out¬ 
lying  provinces,  and  the  little  capital,  David  (pronounced 
Dahveed),  occupies  a  fine  situation  on  the  northwestern 
coast.  Buried  treasure  always  invests  its  burial-place 
with  a  romantic  interest,  and  the  province  of  Chiriqui 
has  yielded  up  many  wonderful  curios  which  make  the 
antiquarians’  eyes  shine,  and  the  adventurers’  mouths 
water,  for  many  of  these  buried  treasures  were  of  pure 
gold. 

Some  Indians,  many  years  ago,  were  digging  a  drain 
(the  first  and  last,  it  would  seem,  they  ever  troubled  them¬ 
selves  about)  when,  what  was  their  amazement !  to  un¬ 
earth  an  image  of  solid  gold.  This  whetted  their  appetite 
for  treasure,  if  not  their  curiosity,  and  they  speedily  left 
off  drain-digging  for  the  far  more  exciting  and  profitable 
occupation  of  grave-digging,  if  we  may  call  it  so,  for  this 
image  and  other  gold  ornaments,  which  were  speedily  un¬ 
earthed,  were  found  to  be  in  the  ancient  graves  of  a  for¬ 
gotten  race  that  had  left  no  other  memorial. 

The  graves  in  these  ancient  cemeteries  were  located  by 
tapping  on  the  earth  as  the  native  walked  along.  The 
welcome,  hollow  sound,  which  sometimes  responded  to 


THE  SMALLEST  REPUBLIC  IN  THE  WORLD  29 


the  tap  of  his  stick,  told  him  that  a  grave  was  beneath  his 
feet.  Opening  it,  he  would  find  that  the  grave  had  been 
lined  with  pieces  of  stone,  and  then  cross  pieces  of  stone 
laid  on  them. 

All  sorts  of  things  were  found  in  these  graves ;  stone 
and  pottery  implements,  pieces  of  pure  gold,  copper  and 
bone  ornaments,  and  ornaments  of  gold  gilt,  “  a  species 
of  pinchbeck,  which  the  natives  call 1  tumbago.’  ”  Small 
idols  in  stone  were  frequently  found,  but  none  more  than 
eighteen  inches  high.  The  frog  was  a  favourite  orna¬ 
ment,  often  modelled  in  gold.  u  The  largest  frog  of  pure 
gold,”  says  Wolfred  Nelson,  the  explorer,  “  weighed 
eighteen  ounces.  .  .  .  Another  thing  that  seemed  very 
strange  to  me  was  a  kind  of  bell,”  he  continues.  “It 
was  of  gold,  and  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  old-time 
sleigh-bell.  It  had  a  handle,  and  within  were  little  pieces 
of  metal,  and  those  little  bells,  when  shaken,  emitted 
quite  a  musical  sound.” 

Perhaps  these  bells  which  Mr.  Nelson  found  were  meant 
for  the  ancient  Panamanian  baby,  for  the  baby  seems  to 
have  played  as  important  a  part  in  the  domestic  economy 
of  that  day  as  of  this,  since  clay  rattles,  evidently  meant 
for  his  use,  were  found  in  other  little  graves,  as  well  as 
many  whistles,  which  produced  all  sorts  of  notes.  A  pa¬ 
thetic  interest  to  every  father  and  mother  attaches  to 
these  baby  rattles  from  the  prehistoric  Panamanian 
graves. 

To-day,  however,  interest  in  the  Isthmus  does  not 
centre  in  the  wilderness  of  Chiriqui,  with  all  its  archeo¬ 
logical  wealth,  but  in  the  two  towns  of  Colon  and  Panama, 
which  guard  either  end  of  the  great  Canal. 

They  occupy  a  curious  and  anomalous  position.  They 
are  the  largest  and  most  important  cities  of  the  Canal 
Zone,  but  they  are  not  in  the  Canal  Zone.  They  are  un¬ 
der  Panamanian  law  and  guarded  by  Panamanian  police, 


30  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


while,  across  a  line,  no  more  visible  but  less  imaginary 
than  the  equator,  lie  Cristobal  at  Colon,  and  Ancon  at 
Panama,  which  are  under  United  States  law  and  guarded 
by  United  States  police.  People  who  send  letters  directed 
to  “Panama,  Canal  Zone,”  or  “Colon,  Canal  Zone,”  as 
many  do,  make  a  mistake  scarcely  different  from  one  who 
might  direct  a  letter  to  “Montreal,  United  States,”  or 
“Boston,  Canada.” 

The  rights  of  the  United  States  were  defined  by  the 
treaty  signed  at  Washington  in  1903,  as  follows  :  “The 
Republic  of  Panama  grants  to  the  United  States  in  per¬ 
petuity  the  use,  occupation,  and  control  of  the  land,  and 
land  under  water,  for  the  construction,  maintenance, 
operation,  sanitation  and  protection  of  said  canal,  of  a 
width  of  ten  miles,  extending  to  the  distance  of  five  miles 
on  each  side  of  the  centre  line  of  the  route  of  the  canal  to 
be  constructed.”  “The  Republic  of  Panama  grants  to 
the  United  States  all  the  rights,  power,  and  authority, 
within  the  zone  .  .  .  which  the  United  States  would 

possess  and  exercise  if  it  were  the  sovereign  of  the  terri¬ 
tory  ...  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  the  exercise  by 
the  Republic  of  Panama  of  any  such  sovereign  rights, 
power,  and  authority.” 

That  is  all  definite  and  exact,  and  if  it  does  not  mean 
practical  ownership  of  the  zone,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what 
it  does  mean. 

Besides  this,  we  have  rights  over  any  other  land  or 
water  that  may  be  “  necessary  or  convenient  for  the  con¬ 
struction,  maintenance,  operation,  sanitation  and  protec¬ 
tion,  of  said  canal.”  This  gives  us  a  right  to  quell  in¬ 
surrections,  to  put  down  any  serious  disturbance,  to  enter 
every  house  in  Colon  or  Panama,  to  inspect  and  reform 
its  sanitary  condition,  and  to  do  about  anything  that 
needs  to  be  done. 

Because  of  this  wholesome  and  necessary  treaty,  and 


THE  SMALLEST  REPUBLIC  IN  THE  WORLD  31 


by  reason  of  this  alone,  it  has  been  possible  to  make 
Panama  and  Colon  as  healthy  as  any  tropical  cities  in  the 
world.  Col.  W.  C.  Gorgas,  the  sanitary  saviour  of  Cuba, 
has  utterly  banished  yellow  fever  from  the  Isthmus  also. 
He  has  sent  his  inspectors  into  every  house.  They  have 
tipped  over  every  old  rainwater  barrel,  and  filled  up 
every  old  cistern.  Colonel  Gorgas  has  introduced  good, 
wholesome  aqueduct- water  in  the  place  of  rainwater,  has 
drained  the  city  and  provided  it  with  sewers,  has  repaved 
most  of  the  streets,  and  transformed  Panama  into  as 
wholesome  a  city,  from  the  sanitary  point  of  view,  as  one 
would  ask  to  live  in. 

“How  did  the  Panamanians  stand  this  interference 
with  their  natural  and  vested  rights  in  bad  drainage, 
bad  water,  and  mosquitoes?”  I  asked  him. 

“  Oh  !  they  were  just  indifferent,”  he  replied.  “  They 
didn’t  care  so  long  as  we  paid  for  the  so-called  improve¬ 
ments.” 

But  very  likely  these  Panamanians  thought  these 
Yankees  were  queer  fellows  to  spend  so  much  time  and 
money  in  killing  a  few  harmless  mosquitoes. 

Doubtless  Colouel  Gorgas  will  go  down  to  history  as  one 
of  the  great  men  of  America.  More  than  any  other  one 
man,  he  has  made  the  canal  possible,  for,  until  he  ban¬ 
ished  the  Stegomia  mosquito  from  the  Isthmus,  even 
Uncle  Sam’s  treasury  was  scarcely  deep  enough  or  large 
enough  to  dig  the  Canal,  to  say  nothing  of  the  frightful 
loss  of  human  life.  The  Stegomia  would  have  defeated 
us,  as  it  did  the  French. 

A  most  genial,  kindly  man  is  this  chief  sanitary  officer 
of  the  Canal  Zone,  with  a  kindly  twinkle  in  his  eye  and 
a  generous  word  for  every  man.  No  one  on  the  Isthmus 
is  so  honoured  and  beloved  by  all  classes  and  conditions 
of  men,  for  he  cares  for  the  moral  and  religious  welfare  of 
the  people,  as  well  as  for  their  sanitary  welfare.  He 


32  tTHE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


fights  moral  microbes  as  well  as  mosquitoes,  malaria,  and 
plague-carrying  rats.  All  were  delighted  when  Presi¬ 
dent  Roosevelt,  on  his  visit,  hugged  Colonel  Gorgas 
openly  on  his  arrival. 

It  is  no  easy  task  to  keep  in  order  and  keep  at  work 
the  decidedly  mixed  crowd  that  flock  to  the  Isthmus, 
many  of  whom  are  adventurers  and  soldiers  of  fortune. 
The  police  records  for  the  month  of  January  show  the 
mixture  of  nationalities.  In  that  month,  520  arrests  were 
made  by  168  police  officers.  Of  this  number,  there  were 
thirty-six  Americans,  three  Antiguans,  fourteen  Bar¬ 
badians,  one  Belgian,  eleven  English,  four  Chileans,  one 
Finlander,  eight  French,  five  Germans,  three  Irish,  six¬ 
teen  Italians,  seventy-nine  Jamaicans,  forty  Martinicans, 
three  Mexicans,  one  Norwegian,  thirty- eight  Pana¬ 
manians,  three  Peruvians,  one  Scotsman,  twenty-eight 
Spaniards,  one  Swede,  seventeen  St.  Lucians,  six  Syrians, 
one  Cuban,  eleven  Trinidadians,  and  eleven  from  other 
West  India  islands. 

While  many  of  the  Panamanians  are  shiftless  and  un¬ 
enterprising,  these  characteristics  are  not  true  of  all. 
President  Manuel  Amador  Guerrero  is  a  man  of  educa¬ 
tion  and  refinement,  with  a  piercing  black  eye  and  an 
eager,  cordial  way  of  grasping  your  hand,  that  makes 
you  feel  at  home  at  once  in  his  modest  palace.  He  speaks 
English,  as  do  other  members  of  his  cabinet.  He  is  a 
doctor  of  medicine  by  profession,  and  though  perhaps 
disappointed  when  he  found  out  that  I  was  nothing  but  a 
Doctor  of  Divinity,  he  did  not  show  it,  but  gave  me  a 
most  cordial  reception.  He  is  no  longer  young,  but  is 
still  active  and  vigorous,  and  he  belongs  to  an  old  and  in¬ 
fluential  family  of  Panama.  Under  his  somewhat  limited 
authority  he  is  giving  the  country  an  excellent  adminis¬ 
tration. 

Hon.  H.  C.  Squires,  the  American  minister  to  Panama, 


THE  SMALLEST  REPUBLIC  IN  THE  WORLD  33 


is  naturally  a  man  of  large  importance  at  this  juncture, 
comprising,  as  he  does,  since  Governor  McGoon’s  depar¬ 
ture  for  Cuba,  some  of  the  functions  of  Governor  of  the 
Canal  Zone,  as  well  as  minister  to  Panama.  His  diplo¬ 
matic  experience  has  well  fitted  him  for  this  important 
post.  In  Cuba  he  occupied  a  similar  position  after  the 
Spanish- American  War,  and  in  China,  as  Secretary  of 
Legation  before  the  Boxer  troubles,  and  during  the  siege 
of  Pekin,  he  won  golden  laurels,  laurels  which  evidently 
fit  his  brow  in  this  new  situation. 

On  the  whole,  Canal  Zone  matters  seem  to  me  to  be  in 
an  exceedingly  satisfactory  condition.  Of  course,  there 
are  flaws  and  imperfections.  In  such  a  vast  work  it 
could  hardly  be  otherwise.  The  state  of  morals  is  low  in 
some  sections  of  the  Zone,  doubtless,  and  many  young 
men  go  to  pieces,  physically,  mentally,  and  spiritually, 
through  rum  and  loose  living.  The  churches  and  other 
moral  forces  are  not  yet  exerting  the  influence  they  should 
or  will  exert,  but  things  are  on  the  mend  :  the  forces  of 
law,  order,  and  morality  are  growing  stronger  month  by 
month,  and  the  u smallest  republic  in  the  world”  is  by 
no  means  the  least  or  worst. 


IV 


CONTRADICTIONS  AND  CONTRASTS  IN 
THE  CANAL  ZONE 

The  Point  of  View— Imagination  Needed — Colon  and  Cristobal— The  Pes¬ 
simist’s  View — The  Optimist’s  Opinion— English-American  Predic¬ 
tions— The  Abolition  of  the  Mosquito—  Colon  as  a  Health  Resort— 
What  the  French  Taught  Us— De  Lesseps’  Palaces-  Lightning 
Transformation  Scenes— How  the  Dirt  Flies— Discarded  French  Ma¬ 
chinery — Lake- Making  versus  Ditch-Digging. 

ONE  cannot  be  long  in  the  Canal  Zone  without 
coming  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  a  land  of  con¬ 
tradictions,  and  this  characteristic  accounts, 
doubtless,  for  the  contradictory  reports  concerning  the 
Isthmus  that  are  current  at  Colon  and  Panama. 

One  man  can  see  nothing  but  misery,  miasma,  and  mis¬ 
takes  ;  another  nothing  but  health,  happiness,  and  hope. 
It  depends  partly  upon  one’s  point  of  view,  but  even 
more  upon  one’s  habit  of  mind.  One  does  not  need  to  be 
much  of  a  muck-raker  to  find  plenty  of  muck  (at  least  in 
the  streets).  On  the  other  hand,  if  one  lifts  up  his  eyes, 
he  sees  that  the  stars  are  still  shining  over  the  Canal 
Zone,  that  the  greatest  canal  in  the  world  is  becoming  a 
tremendous  fact,  a  fact  that  is  growing  more  and  more 
impressive  day  by  day. 

If  one  has  a  moderate  gift  of  imagination,  and  can  pro¬ 
ject  himself  into  the  future  a  dozen  years,  or  even  less,  the 
Isthmus  becomes  one  of  the  most  notable  and  interesting 
spots  in  all  the  world.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  looks 
only  at  what  he  sees  immediately  around  him,  when  he 
lands  in  Colon,  he  will  declare  it  to  be  the  most  God-for¬ 
saken  spot  on  the  footstool  of  earth. 

These  contradictions  and  contrasts  greet  one  at  every 

34 


CONTRASTS  IN  THE  CANAL  ZONE 


35 


turn,  especially  in  Colon.  De  Lesseps’  palaces  crown  the 
wind-swept  point  of  Cristobal,  where  balmy  breezes 
sweep  the  shore  fresh  from  the  salt  sea  at  all  hours  of  the 
day  and  night,  while,  scarcely  a  stone’s  throw  away,  over 
the  line  in  Panamanian  territory,  are  wretched  huts  in 
which  no  self-respecting  American  would  shelter  his 
swine.  Two  or  three  well -paved  streets  run  the  length  of 
Colon,  while  a  quarter  of  a  block  away  the  swamp,  just 
being  redeemed  from  the  possession  of  the  mosquito  and 
the  alligator,  stops  one’s  progress.  In  fact,  only  a  few 
days  ago,  as  I  write,  a  young  saurian,  six  feet  long,  was 
caught  in  the  very  middle  of  the  town,  as  he  was  seeking 
his  ancestral  swamp,  which  later  on  he  found,  though  in 
the  process  of  transformation. 

“  So  much  to  do,”  says  the  pessimist  j  “  so  much  al¬ 
ready  done,”  answers  the  optimist.  “  A  miserable,  ma¬ 
larial  ditch,”  says  the  pessimist ;  u  a  magnificent  canal  in 
the  making,”  retorts- the  optimist. 

I  find  that  the  views  of  residents  and  visitors  are  di¬ 
vided  somewhat  on  national  lines.  The  Britisher  and 
the  anglomaniac  are  still  quite  sure  that  the  canal  will 
come  to  no  good  end,  or,  to  speak  more  exactly,  though 
it  may  have  two  good  ends,  these  ends  will  never  be  con¬ 
nected  by  a  good  middle  channel.  The  English  captain 
of  the  steamer  that  took  us  from  New  York,  gravely  in¬ 
formed  me  that  “the  canal  would  never  be  built.”  In¬ 
deed,  he  was  cocksure  of  his  position,  and  was  willing  to 
defend  it  in  a  lengthy  argument.  Other  Englishmen 
shake  their  heads  gravely,  and  talk  about  “  colossal  mis¬ 
take,”  “  enormous  graft,”  “  the  danger  of  the  dam  giving 
way  and  flooding  Colon,”  etc.  The  American,  on  the 
other  hand,  and  many  optimistic  Britons  whom  I  met, 
scout  all  this,  and  inform  us  cheerily  that  failure  is  im¬ 
possible,  that  enough  has  been  done  already  to  demon¬ 
strate  the  wisdom  of  the  plans  adopted,  and  that,  in  ten 


36  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


years,  or  at  the  most  twelve,  the  largest  ships  in  the 
world  will  be  steaming  through  the  widest,  deepest,  and 
most  important  ditch  ever  dug  by  man. 

I  cannot  claim  to  be  unprejudiced  ;  but  if  I  could  take 
the  position  of  an  impartial  observer  from  another  planet, 
from  Mars,  for  instance,  where  they  know  so  much  about 
canals,  I  am  confident  that  even  then  I  should  lean 
strongly  towards  the  optimistic  side. 

If  one  looks  at  the  vastness  of  the  undertaking,  only 
yet  in  its  infancy,  he  may  get  discouraged.  If  he  con¬ 
siders  what  has  already  been  accomplished,  under  adverse 
circumstances  of  climate  and  Congress,  he  is  willing  to 
believe  that  nothing  is  impossible. 

At  any  rate,  “the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  dark¬ 
ness  ”  and  the  fever  that  wasteth  at  noonday  have  been 
largely  overcome,  and  that  means  that  the  battle  is  more 
than  half- won.  Two  years  ago,  Colon  was  one  of  the 
worst  death-holes  in  the  world.  Yellow  fever,  malaria, 
and  often  smallpox,  stalked  across  the  Isthmus.  The 
undrained  swamps  which  hemmed  in  Colon  on  all  sides, 
and  through  which  some  of  the  streets  ran,  bred  the 
pestilent  mosquito  by  the  billion,  and  any  one  who  un¬ 
dertook  to  live  there  took  his  life  in  his  hand. 

Now,  by  comparison,  Colon  might  be  called  a  health- 
resort.  There  has  not  been  a  well-defined  case  of 1 1  yellow 
Jack  ”  for  nearly  eighteen  months,  and  not  even  a  “  sus¬ 
pect  ”  for  nine  months.  Malaria  is  steadily  decreasing 
and  becoming  less  virulent.  The  mosquito  is  foiled  by 
the  wire  screens  that  meet  him  everywhere,  even  as  he 
attempts  to  enter  some  of  the  humbler  houses,  while  the 
ditches  and  drain-tiles  are  completing  his  discomfiture, 
and  the  one  and  only  winged  spirit  of  evil  that  carries 
these  dread  diseases  is  retiring  farther  and  farther  into 
his  native  swamps. 

Colon  has  by  no  means  a  bad  climate.  Every  traveller 


CONTRASTS  IN  THE  CANAL  ZONE 


37 


is  surprised  at  the  coolness  and  freshness  of  the  air  in  the 
dry  season.  The  sea  breeze  blows  all  day  long,  and 
every  day.  Of  course,  it  is  hot  in  the  sun  and  out  of  the 
breeze,  as  always  in  the  tropics,  but  turn  a  corner,  where 
the  wind  can  strike  you,  stand  under  the  shade  of  a 
towering  cocoanut,  and  you  are  soon  almost  too  cool,  and 
you  begin  to  say  that  the  climate  of  the  Isthmus  has  been 
outrageously  maligned.  To  be  sure,  I  am  writing  about 
the  Isthmus  as  it  is  in  the  month  of  February,  but  several 
Americans  who  have  lived  here  the  year  round  have  told 
me  that  they  have  suffered  more  from  the  heat  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  than  they  ever  did  in  Colon. 

So  the  problem  in  the  Isthmus  is  not  how  to  change  the 
climate,  which  might  prove  a  large  contract  even  for 
Americans,  but  how  to  drain  the  swamps  and  outwit  the 
mosquitoes,  and  this,  as  I  have  said,  has  already  been 
largely  accomplished.  It  was  the  pestiferous  and  elusive 
mosquito  that  defeated  the  French  in  their  attempts  to 
dig  the  canal,  and  even  Napoleon’s  armies  could  not  have 
stood  against  them.  There  were  corruption  and  graft  and 
extravagance,  almost  beyond  belief,  during  the  French 
occupation  ;  but  in  spite  of  these  adverse  forces  the  canal 
would  probably  have  been  built  before  this  if  the 
mosquito  had  not  been  present.  But  the  French  did  not 
know  how  to  contend  with  him,  and  he  slaughtered  their 
forces  of  diggers  by  the  ten  thousand.  Now  that  the 
health  of  the  zone  has  been  established  and  demonstrated, 
only  colossal  corruption  and  mismanagement  can  prevent 
the  completion  of  the  canal. 

In  still  other  ways  have  we  profited  by  the  mistakes  of 
the  French.  For  instance,  they  built  their  great  wooden 
palaces,  administration  buildings,  and  workmen’s  houses 
on  the  ground,  and  these  erections  the  ants  attacked  and 
soon  demolished,  or  greatly  weakened  their  foundations. 
The  Americans  have  raised  the  old  buildings,  and  built 


38  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


the  new  ones,  on  brick  or  cement  piles,  which  the  ants 
cannot  consume. 

The  extravagance,  too,  of  “the  De  Lesseps  gang”  is 
constantly  before  the  eyes  of  every  one  in  Colon,  in  the 
shape  of  the  huge  wooden  palaces  built  for  the  elder  De 
Lesseps  and  his  son  on  their  brief  visits  to  the  canal,  as 
well  as  in  the  mountains  of  useless  and  absolutely  unused 
machinery  which  were  accumulated  in  Colon,  and  at 
which  the  teeth  of  time  and  rust  have  been  gnawing  for 
years,  until  now  they  are  almost  utterly  destroyed.  The 
palaces  have  been  converted  into  offices  for  the  Isthmian 
Canal  Commission,  and  the  monuments  of  useless  ma¬ 
chinery  and  worthless  stores  ought  to  warn  our  officials 
how  not  to  do  it. 

After  all,  if  we  have  received  no  material  consideration 
for  the  forty  millions  of  dollars  we  paid  to  the  French 
company,  the  experience,  and  the  warnings  they  left  us 
of  how  not  to  do  it,  should  be  worth  the  money. 

The  contrast  of  Colon  and  Panama  of  to-day  and  the 
Colon  and  Panama  of  even  a  year  ago  also  gives  rise  to 
many  of  the  contradictions  which  appear  in  the  public 
press,  and  to  the  confusion  of  American  ideas.  We  re¬ 
member  the  man  who  could  not  lie  about  Chicago,  be¬ 
cause  it  grew  so  fast  that  it  kept  ahead  of  his  prevarica¬ 
tions,  do  the  best  he  could.  So  it  is  difficult  to  keep  up 
with  the  changes  in  these  Panamanian  cities  since  Uncle 
Sam  began  to  dig  the  canal  in  good  earnest.  “  Old 
residents,”  who  took  up  their  abode  in  these  cities  a 
year  ago,  tell  me  that  they  hardly  know  the  towns  to-day 
as  the  same  ones  they  remember  twelve  months  ago. 

Then,  the  streets  of  Colon  were  a  mass  of  reeking  mud. 
Now,  several  are  very  respectably  paved  or  macadamized, 
and  on  a  dozen  others  workmen  are  engaged,  so  that 
every  passing  week  makes  a  very  decided  difference  in 
the  highways  of  the  city.  The  same  is  true  of  the  build- 


CONTRASTS  IN  THE  CANAL  ZONE 


39 


ings  which  are  going  up  in  many  sections  of  the  native 
city  of  Colon.  To-day  a  swamp,  the  next  day  a  paved 
street,  the  day  after  a  four  story  wooden  building,  is 
only  a  little  exaggeration  of  the  facts.  Of  course,  many 
of  these  buildings  are  the  flimsiest  of  jerry-built  houses  ; 
but  they  afford  shelter,  at  an  enormously  high  rent,  until 
something  better  and  more  substantial  can  be  provided, 
for  a  population  in  Colon  that  is  growing  by  leaps  and 
bounds. 

In  Panama,  the  same  improvements  are  being  made, 
though  Panama,  being  an  older  and  more  substantial 
city,  does  not  show  the  same  lightning  transformation 
scenes.  Yet  here,  scarcely  eighteen  months  ago,  there 
was  not  a  paved  street  in  all  the  city.  The  roads  were 
full  of  pitfalls  and  stumbling-blocks,  and  whether  a  man 
was  dead  or  alive,  whether  a  mendicant  or  a  millionaire, 
the  cab  driver  “  rattled  his  bones  over  the  stones,”  like 
Hood’s  pauper  “whom  nobody  owns.”  Now  all  the 
principal  streets  are  paved  with  brick,  and  well-paved, 
too,  and  are  far  more  comfortable  for  the  foot  or  carriage 
passenger  than  are  many  of  the  streets  of  New  York  or 
Boston. 

All  along  the  line  of  the  railway  from  Colon  to  Pan¬ 
ama,  neat  villages  have  sprung  up  almost  in  a  night. 
There  are  more  boom  towns  in  the  forty-eight  miles  of 
that  short  railway  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world  in  the 
same  distance.  And  these  boom  towns  will  continue  to 
boom,  for  they  have  come  to  stay,  at  least  until  the  canal 
is  finished,  since  each  one  was  planted  to  meet  a  distinct 
need  by  experienced  and  far-sighted  officials. 

These  sudden  transformations  account,  as  I  have  said, 
for  many  conflicting  reports.  Month  before  last,  some 
visitor  to  the  Canal  Zone  might  have  written  with  truth 
of  a  dismal,  malaria-breeding  swamp,  fit  only  for  the 
residence  of  mosquitoes  and  alligators.  Month  after  next, 


40  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


another  visitor,  writing  of  the  same  place,  might  tell  of  a 
thriving  colony,  of  happy  homes,  of  a  free  public  school 
attended  by  diligent  children,  and  of  the  local  habitation 
of  all  kinds  of  progressive  American  ideas.  And  both 
writers  would  be  telling  the  truth. 

Another  thing  that  impresses  the  visitor  to  the  Isthmus 
is  the  enormous  scale  on  which  everything  is  undertaken. 
It  is  one  of  the  world’s  biggest  undertakings,  and  it  is 
provided  for  on  the  largest  scale.  There  is  a  steamer 
direct  from  New  York,  unloading  great  flat  freight  cars 
for  carrying  dirt  from  the  cuts.  A  foreman  is  checking 
them  off  when  they  are  swung  up  by  the  huge  derrick, 
as  he  might  check  so  many  bunches  of  bananas.  He 
tells  us  that  they  are  a  part  of  a  consignment  of  a 
thousand  flat  cars  which  they  cannot  get  fast  enough  from 
the  States,  though  there  were  thousands  of  such  cars  on 
the  Isthmus  before.  Portable  houses,  or  material  for 
houses  are  ordered  by  the  hundred,  stores  of  all  kinds 
by  the  million  dollars’  worth  ;  cranes,  derricks,  dredging 
machines,  steam  shovels  that  can  dig  away  a  small  moun¬ 
tain  in  a  month,  are  some  of  the  equipment  which  one 
sees  on  every  side.  Everything  is  on  the  biggest  and 
most  powerful  scale.  The  puny  little  French  engines 
that  one  sees,  some  of  them  in  use  and  some  of  them  cast 
aside,  look  like  children’s  toys  compared  with  the  great 
moguls  that  are  hauling  the  dirt  away  from  places  where 
it  is  not  wanted  and  dumping  it  where  it  is  wanted. 

On  our  journey  from  Colon  to  Panama,  I  passed  gravel 
train  after  gravel  train  carrying  the  dirt  to  the  dump.  A 
friend  told  me  that  he  stood  at  one  station  for  three  hours 
and,  during  that  time,  a  long,  loaded  gravel  train  passed 
every  ten  minutes — all  of  which  proves  that  canal  dirt  is 
flying,  and  flying  at  a  tremendous  rate  already. 

Mr.  Stevens,  the  exceedingly  efficient  and  able  engineer 
who  then  controlled  the  destiny  of  the  canal,  told  me  that 


A  STEAM  SHOVEL  AT  WORK  ON  THE  CANAL. 


CULEBRA  CUT.  PART  OF  THE  OLD  FRENCH  EXCAVATION. 


CONTRASTS  IN  THE  CANAL  ZONE 


41 


in  February,  1907,  the  soil  was  being  excavated  at  a  rate 
twice  as  great  as  on  the  very  busiest  month  of  the  French 
occupation.  Their  record  month  was  340, 000  cubic  yards 
of  excavation.  The  month  of  February  saw  700,000 
cubic  yards  taken  out,  and  in  March  800,000  yards  would 
be  excavated,  and  even  then  the  expected  limit  had  not 
been  reached  by  any  means. 

Thirty  thousand  men  are  now  employed  in  different 
capacities ;  4,000  carpenters  and  builders  ;  3,000  digging 
drains  and  laying  pipes  for  sanitary  purposes,  etc.,  etc. 
These  figures  are  difficult  to  comprehend,  but  when  one 
goes  up  and  down  the  line  as  I  have  done  more  than  once, 
he  sees  that  this  enormous  army  of  knights  of  the  spade  and 
hammer  are  actually  at  work  and  bringing  things  to  pass. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  worthless  French  machinery,  dis¬ 
carded  engines,  boilers,  derricks,  etc.,  but  the  officials 
have  been  at  pains  to  explain  to  me  that  this  machinery 
was  the  best  that  could  be  obtained  at  the  time.  It  has 
been  superseded  and  rendered  worthless,  simply  by  the 
great  advances  in  mechanical  engineering  and  labour-sav¬ 
ing  machinery  within  the  last  twenty  years.  Impossibil¬ 
ities  have  become  possible  within  that  period. 

The  difficulty  now  is  not  to  dig  out  the  soil  and  rock, 
but  to  dispose  of  it  afterwards  ;  this  is,  however,  being 
overcome,  though  it  means  the  laying  of  miles  and  miles 
of  new  track,  and  the  vast  enlargement  of  all  the  railway 
rolling  stock. 

All  these  preparations  and  accomplishments  impress 
the  beholder  with  the  tremendous  energy  and  determina¬ 
tion  with  which  the  big  job  has  been  undertaken,  and 
give  him  confidence  that  it  will  be  successfully  com¬ 
pleted.  It  seems  as  if  the  energy  of  our  strenuous  Presi¬ 
dent,  to  whom  the  canal  project  is  so  dear,  had  been  in¬ 
fused  into  the  managers  and  heads  of  departments  all 
along  the  line. 


42  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


As  most  of  my  readers  know,  the  problem  now  is  not 
to  dig  a  wide,  deep  ditch,  bnt  to  form  two  great  lakes 
more  than  thirty  miles  long  and  eighty  feet  deep  in  the 
deepest  part,  and  to  build  dams  strong  enough  to  retain 
this  enormous  body  of  water  ;  so  that  we  must  adjust  our¬ 
selves  to  another  contradiction  of  old-time  ideas,  and  try 
to  imagine  that  canal -making  in  the  Zone  is  not  so  much 
ditch-digging  as  lake-making,  with  two  comparatively 
short  canals  at  either  end. 

There  is  no  more  interesting  place  in  the  world  to-day 
than  the  Canal  Zone,  there  are  few  healthier  places,  there 
are  good  steamers  to  bring  visitors  here,  and  one  good 
hotel  at  least  at  the  Panama  end  where  they  may  stay, 
and  there  is  no  reason  why  thousands  of  Americans 
should  not  come  and  see  for  themselves  how  Uncle  Sam 
spends  their  money  in  making  the  canal,  to  which  every 
man,  woman  and  child  in  the  Union  will  have  to  con¬ 
tribute  at  least  three  dollars  before  the  first  steamer  goes 
through,  and  before  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  oceans  are 
forever  wedded. 


V 

THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COLOMBIA 


The  Two  Front  Doors  of  Colombia — A  Remote  Capital — "Why  Colombia 
Interests  North  Americans — An  Empire  in  Resources — How  the 
Pope  Divided  Up  South  America — Nunez  de  Balboa  and  His  Great 
Journey — The  Chibchas  and  Their  Civilization — A  History  of  Revo¬ 
lutions— Bogota’s  Civilization— The  Separation  of  Panama. 

THE  Republic  of  Colombia  is  scarcely  11  the  gem 
of  the  ocean/  9  but  she  has  interesting  peculiar¬ 
ities  that  belong  to  none  of  the  other  South 
American  states.  She  is  the  only  republic  of  the  ten  that 
lies  on  both  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  coasts.  She  has  two 
front  doors,  so  to  speak,  one  facing  the  north  and  the 
other  the  west,  while  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  which  used 
to  be  hers,  divides  her  Atlantic  and  Pacific  possessions. 

But,  though  Colombia  has  two  ample  front  doors,  the 
entry  ways  which  lead  from  them  to  the  chiefly  inhabited 
portion  of  her  house,  to  carry  out  the  figure,  are  narrow 
and  tortuous  and  almost  impassable.  For  the  coasts  are 
often  swampy  and  malarial,  or  else  covered  with  such 
dense,  matted  and  rain-soaked  vegetation  that  it  is  diffi¬ 
cult  to  force  a  road  through  it  to  the  high  table-lands 
where  lie  Colombia’s  fertile  and  thickly  populated  plains, 
and  where  her  capital,  Bogotfi,  is  situated. 

It  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  whose  capital  is  so 
isolated  that  it  can  exert  but  slight  political  influence 
upon  the  outlying  provinces,  which,  for  much  of  her  in¬ 
dependent  history,  have  been  in  more  or  less  open  revolt. 

When,  recently,  Panama  desired  to  separate  from  the 
mother  country,  and  set  up  her  own  lares  and  penates,  it 
was  easier  for  the  United  States,  England,  or  France  to 
land  marines  to  preserve  order  in  the  Canal  Zone  than 

43 


44  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOBTUNIT Y 


for  Colombia  to  get  the  handful  of  troops  at  her  disposal 
into  the  rebellious  territory,  though  she  had  to  send  only 
from  Cartagena,  while  if  she  had  dispatched  regiments 
overland  from  Bogotd,  as  was  insanely  proposed,  it  would 
have  meant  weeks  of  hopeless  scrambling  through  an  al¬ 
most  impenetrable  jungle.  No  wonder  that  she  made  a 
virtue  of  necessity,  and  let  Panama  u  gang  her  ain  gait.” 

Chiefly  Colombia  has  been  of  interest  to  us  in  North 
America,  not  because  of  her  vast  extent,  her  undeveloped 
resources,  her  mines  of  gold,  and  her  wealth  of  forests, 
but  because  in  the  division  of  the  nations  that  little  nar¬ 
row,  but  vastly  important  strip  of  territory  called  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  was  included  within  her  bounds. 

That  coveted  zone,  ten  miles  wide,  which  will  soon 
afford  a  waterway  between  the  oceans,  is  really  worth  to 
the  civilized  world  all  the  rest  of  Colombia,  and  indeed  a 
dozen  similar  republics  rolled  in  one. 

Colombia  has  stood  in  the  way  of  progress  and  modern 
civilization.  The  canal  will  promote  them,  as  no  similar 
waterway  in  the  world  has  ever  done.  Colombia  has  the 
superstition,  the  ignorance,  and  the  priestcraft,  of  the 
middle  ages.  The  canal  will  bring  the  latest  ideas  and 
inventions  of  the  progressive  west  to  the  darkest  and 
most  backward  sections  of  the  east. 

And,  doubtless,  in  these  blessings  Colombia  will  herself 
share,  and  will  perhaps  come  to  count  that  her  best  day 
when  Panama  slipped  off  her  yoke,  and  made  it  possible 
for  the  United  States  to  inaugurate  the  greatest  piece  of 
modern  engineering  which  the  world  has  yet  seen. 

After  all,  Colombia  is  an  empire  in  herself,  if  an  unde¬ 
veloped  empire, — she  too  is  a  part  of  the  great  continent 
of  possibilities,  even  since  stripped  of  Panama,  she  con¬ 
tains  nearly  500,000  square  miles  and  is  one-sixth  of  the 
size  of  the  United  States  outside  of  Alaska.  A  country 
as  big  as  ten  Pennsylvanias,  full  of  undeveloped  gold 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COLOMBIA 


45 


mines,  even  though  hundreds  of  millions  of  the  precious 
metal  have  already  been  won  within  her  borders  ;  a  coun¬ 
try  abounding  in  precious  woods  and  tropical  fruits ; 
a  country  of  fine  river  courses  and  lofty  mountains  and 
noble  plateaux  ;  a  country  which  possesses  every  variety  of 
climate,  from  the  intensely  tropical  to  the  mildly  temper¬ 
ate,  where  white  men  can  live  as  happily  as  in  any 
portion  of  the  world,  cannot  be  without  a  future,  however 
checkered  her  past  has  been. 

Colombia,  like  most  South  American  countries,  has 
been  cursed  by  her  religion  and  her  politics.  When  the 
Pope  divided  all  South  America  between  Spain  and 
Portugal,  he  gave  what  was  not  his  to  give  ;  but  his  edict 
made  it  possible  for  these  powers  to  fasten  upon  one-sev¬ 
enth  of  the  earth’s  surface  all  that  was  reactionary  and 
mediaeval  in  church  and  state,  to  keep  these  countries  in 
bondage  for  three  hundred  years.  The  writhings  and 
spasms  of  the  last  hundred  years  have  broken  the  polit¬ 
ical  yoke,  and  in  some  measure  the  religious  yoke,  but 
there  have  been  as  yet  in  Colombia  no  years  of  well- 
ordered  freedom  which  could  bring  peace  and  plenty  to 
this  distracted  country. 

The  early  history  of  Colombia  is  one  of  the  most  inter¬ 
esting  of  all  the  South  American  republics.  The  great 
Columbus  landed  on  her  shores  on  his  third  voyage. 
Cartagena,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  is  the  oldest  fortress  in 
all  America.  The  illustrious  Balboa  started  from  one  of 
her  ports  on  his  famous  expedition  which  nearly  multi¬ 
plied  by  two  the  world’s  knowledge  of  geography. 

It  was  an  epoch-making  journey, — that  which  Nunez 
de  Balboa  made  into  the  interior  from  the  Atlantic  coast 
in  1511, — a  very  short  journey,  to  be  sure,  and  without 
any  immediate  results,  but  there  he  learned  from  an 
Indian  chief  that  only  twoscore  miles  farther  south  was 
a  great  sea  on  whose  coast  dwelt  great  and  rich  nations. 


46  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Two  years  later,  starting  from  Antigua,  he  headed  an 
expedition  to  see  whether  or  not  the  Indian  chief  was 
telling  the  truth.  Engaged  in  that  expedition  was  the 
wonderful  general,  administrator,  hero  and  scoundrel, 
Francisco  Pizarro.  The  Spaniards  pushed  their  way 
through  the  malarial  swamps  and  the  almost  impenetrable 
jungles,  until,  at  last,  they  approached  a  line  of  hills 
from  which  the  Indians  told  them  they  could  see  the  un¬ 
discovered  ocean.  Balboa  hurried  on  and  outstripped 
his  men,  and  was  the  first  to  feast  his  eyes  upon  the  great 
and  wide  ocean,  the  Pacific  j  but  Pizarro  and  Alonzo 
Martin  rushed  for  the  water,  and  were  the  first  to  allow 
the  cool  waves  to  lave  their  tired  feet. 

What  a  moment  that  was  in  the  history  of  the  world  ! 
The  discovery  meant  Peru  and  the  whole  west  South 
American  coast ;  it  meant  California  and  the  northwest, 
and  eventually  China  and  Japan,  added  to  our  geograph¬ 
ical  knowledge.  It  meant  immense  additions  to  the  do¬ 
main  and  wealth  of  Spain.  It  meant  cruelties  intoler¬ 
able  and  bloodshed  inconceivable.  It  meant  revolution 
and  counter-revolution,  and  political  blasting  and  mil¬ 
dew.  All  this  in  four  hundred  years.  What  it  may 
mean  of  regeneration  and  reconstruction  and  upbuilding 
and  civilization,  the  next  four  hundred  years  will  tell ; 
but  I  have  the  largest  hopes,  for  South  America  has 
turned  the  lowest  corner  of  her  downward  road  some  dec¬ 
ades  ago,  and  is  on  the  up  grade.  On  this  road  may  her 
progress  never  be  stayed  ! 

Colombia,  however,  has  shared  but  little  as  yet  in  this 
upward  progress,  by  reason  in  part  of  her  difficult  geo¬ 
graphical  position,  which  has  placed  her  temperate  and 
most  largely  peopled  section  so  far  in  the  interior  and 
made  it  so  inaccessible  to  the  coast.  l'  Weeks  of  the 
most  difficult  journeying  are  required  to  get  to  the  sea- 
coast  from  Bogota,  or  to  any  of  the  other  states  of 


SOME  NATIVE  PANAMANIANS. 


THE  REPUBLIC  OF  COLOMBIA 


47 


Colombia,  and  Panama  might  as  well  be  on  the  other  side 
of  the  globe,  so  far  as  practical  communication  goes,” 
says  Mr.  Dawson. 

Very  early  in  her  history,  the  Spaniards,  lured  on  by 
gold,  made  their  way  to  the  healthful  table-lands  in  the 
interior,  and  there  Quesada,  their  leader,  established  his 
capital  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Chibcha  city.  The 
Chibchas  were  a  large  nation  of  a  very  considerable  de¬ 
gree  of  civilization.  They  made  cotton  cloth,  mined  the 
precious  metals  and  emeralds,  used  money  as  a  circulat¬ 
ing  medium  ;  lived  in  houses  ;  built  splendid  temples  ;  es¬ 
tablished  a  very  effective  form  of  government, — in  fact, 
in  many  lines  of  civilization,  were  scarcely  inferior  to  the 
Incas  or  Aztecs.  But  they  had  no  military  organization 
or  genius,  and  200  Spaniards  soon  conquered  them  and 
reduced  them  to  vassalage. 

The  next  three  centuries  were  centuries  of  rapacity  and 
oppression,  of  bloodshed  and  revolt  and  stern  reprisals. 
We  cannot  follow  their  wearisome  years  in  detail.  At 
last,  the  people  awoke  to  a  sense  of  their  rights  and  their 
wrongs.  The  ferment  of  the  French  Revolution  began  to 
work  in  far-off  and  backward  Colombia.  The  troubles 
of  Spain  in  the  Napoleonic  wars  gave  the  people  their 
opportunity,  and  in  1808  the  series  of  revolts  began  which, 
at  last,  under  Bolivar,  gave  Colombia  and  the  other 
republics  their  so-called  freedom,  or,  at  least,  transferred 
the  location  of  their  tyrants  from  Spain  to  their  own 
shores,  and  gave  them  “grafters”  of  their  own  nation, 
instead  of  foreign  oppressors,  to  batten  on  the  national 
necessities. 

The  history  of  the  last  hundred  years  has  been  a  his¬ 
tory  of  revolutions,  new  constitutions,  and  the  constant 
swinging  of  the  pendulum  from  extreme  republicanism 
to  dictatorship,  and  back  again,  but  often,  at  both  ex¬ 
tremes,  with  a  set  of  rapacious  and  corrupt  rulers  in 


48  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


power.  Presidents  and  cabinet  officers,  who  have  been 
personally  honest  and  who  have  desired  better  things  for 
Colombia,  have  been  handicapped  by  lack  of  power  to 
inaugurate  reforms,  by  the  inertness  of  the  people,  and 
by  the  desperate  condition  of  the  finances  of  the  country. 

Bolivar  plunged  the  country  hopelessly  in  debt  at  the 
very  beginning  of  her  independent  national  life,  by  reck¬ 
lessly  borrowing  money  for  his  mercenary  troops  and  for 
his  navy.  Dishonesty  and  continued  reckless  borrowing 
increased  this  debt,  until  it  amounted  to  thirty -five  mil¬ 
lions  of  dollars.  After  the  separation  of  Venezuela  and 
Ecuador  from  Colombia,  each  country  nominally  assumed 
its  proportionate  part  of  the  debt,  which,  in  Colombia’s 
case,  has  been  repeatedly  scaled  down,  and  even  the  in¬ 
terest  has  scarcely  been  paid. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  debts,  bad  government,  and  revolutions, 
Colombia  remains  a  state  great  in  territory  and  enor¬ 
mously  rich  in  natural  products.  The  gold  it  contains 
alone  would  make  it  rich,  if  intelligently  mined  and  con¬ 
served.  Along  the  river  banks  it  is  said  you  find  u  pay 
dirt”  everywhere,  and  cannot  wash  the  soil  of  these 
banks  at  any  point  without  finding  u  colour.”  Since  the 
Spanish  conquest,  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  billion 
dollars’  worth  of  the  yellow  metal  have  been  taken  out  of 
Colombia,  and  the  mines  are  still  far  from  being  ex¬ 
hausted. 

Bogotd,  the  capital,  is  a  city  of  120, 000  inhabitants, 
and  is  the  literary  and  intellectual,  as  well  as  the  polit¬ 
ical  centre  of  the  country.  It  has  an  American-installed 
street  railway  and  system  of  electric  lights,  and  a  library 
of  50,000  volumes.  The  Spanish  spoken  in  Bogotd  is 
said  to  be  particularly  pure,  and  she  has  contributed 
more  perhaps  to  the  literature  of  South  America  than  any 
other  one  centre. 

The  event  in  Colombian  history  of  most  interest  to  Amer- 


THE  EEPUBLIC  OF  COLOMBIA 


49 


ican  readers  was  the  last  revolt  of  Panama,  already  al¬ 
luded  to,  which  separated  that  province  from  the  rest  of 
Colombia,  and  made  it  possible  for  the  United  States  to 
dig  the  great  canal.  I  have  called  it  “  the  last  revolt,” 
for  Panama  has  been  in  a  chronic  state  of  secession  for 
hundreds  of  years.  At  times  her  connection  with  far-off 
and  inaccessible  Bogota  was  merely  nominal ;  at  other 
times  she  was  held  in  absolute  and  rasping  vassalage, 
which  galled  her  spirits  and  tempted  her  to  constant  ef¬ 
forts  to  break  away  from  Colombia. 

In  1885  u  the  very  delegates  who  nominally  represented 
her  in  the  constitutional  convention  were  residents  of 
Bogota,  appointed  by  President  Nunez  j  military  rule  be¬ 
came  a  permanent  thing  on  the  Isthmus ;  all  officials 
were  strangers  sent  from  the  Andean  plateau ;  and  the 
million  dollars  of  taxes  wrung  each  year  from  the  people 
of  Panama  were  spent  on  maintaining  the  soldiers  who 
kept  them  in  subjection.” 

One  of  the  periodical  revolts  of  Panama  occurred  in 
1895,  but  it  was  premature  and  ill- managed,  and  was 
speedily  put  down  by  the  Colombian  troops.  A  much 
more  formidable  rebellion  broke  out  in  1899  and  resulted 
in  a  three  years’  civil  war,  in  which  30,000  men  were 
slain.  No  wonder  then  that  the  Panamanians  were  all 
ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  hitch  in  negotiations  be¬ 
tween  the  United  States  and  the  Colombian  governments, 
when  the  corrupt  officials  at  Bogota  held  out  for  more 
than  the  ten  million  dollars  offered  for  the  canal  rights, 
and  threatened  to  hinder,  if  not  prevent,  the  eventual 
building  of  the  canal  through  Panama. 

Then  came  Panama’s  golden  opportunity,  and  she 
seized  it  by  declaring  her  independence.  The  new  re¬ 
public  of  Panama  was  proclaimed  November  3,  1903. 
All  the  resident  inhabitants  were  practically  in  favour  of 
the  new  republic,  whose  interests  were  entirely  bound  up 


50  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


with  the  canal.  The  prompt  recognition  of  Panama  by 
the  United  States,  ten  days  later,  and  by  France  fifteen 
days  later,  prevented  Colombia  from  repeating  the  bloody 
scenes  of  1899-1902,  and  made  it  possible  to  build  the 
canal,  which  will  vastly  promote  the  progress,  unifica¬ 
tion  and  civilization  of  the  world. 

Colombia  lost  her  opportunity  and  deserved  to  do  so. 
The  United  States  never  acted  more  justly  or  righteously, 
in  view  of  the  rights  of  Panama  or  her  own  rights,  or  of 
the  larger  needs  of  mankind,  than  in  recognizing  the  new 
republic  and  foiling  the  designs  of  a  selfish  oligarchy  in 
Bogota. 


VI 


ECUADOR,  THE  REPUBLIC  OF  THE  EQUATOR 

A  Country  Named  for  a  Parallel  of  Latitude— Interesting  Features  of 
Ecuador — The  Guayas  River — Guayaquil,  Ecuador’s  Capital — Its 
Great  Trade — Ecuador’s  Table-Land — Her  Ancient  Kings— The  Com¬ 
ing  of  Pizarro — The  Spanish  Rule — Ecuador’s  Later  Career— Some 
of  Her  Presidents — Her  Many  Revolutions — An  American  Railway 
to  Quito — The  Dawning  of  a  Better  Day. 

ECUADOR  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  named 
for  an  imaginary  line,  a  parallel  of  latitude. 
But  it  is  an  appropriate  name,  for  the  equator 
bisects  it,  and  it  lies  on  both  sides  of  the  zero  line  of  lati¬ 
tude,  though  largely  to  the  south,  with  its  capital,  Quito, 
nearly  on  the  line  itself. 

If  it  is  named  for  an  imaginary  line,  it  is  by  no  means 
an  imaginary  country,  but  a  very  substantial  and  a  very 
rich  land,  which  might  develop  enormously  if  only  the 
curse  of  priestcraft  and  the  twin  curse  of  petty  politics 
were  removed. 

Many  interesting  features  distinguish  Ecuador  from 
her  sister  and  neighbouring  republics.  On  the  way 
south  it  is  the  last  of  the  well-watered  countries  on  the 
west  coast.  The  line  between  Ecuador  and  Peru  is  prac¬ 
tically  the  line  between  the  rain  belt  and  the  arid  region 
which  is  so  characteristic  of  most  of  the  Pacific  coast  of 
South  America,  where  the  cold  Antarctic  current  on  its 
way  north  prevents  the  precipitation  of  moisture  in  the 
form  of  rain.  On  the  coast  of  Ecuador,  on  the  contrary, 
the  people  enjoy  too  much,  rather  than  too  little  rain, 
and  Guayaquil,  the  chief  port,  is  one  of  the  wettest  cities 
in  the  world,  while  the  country  immediately  behind  it  is 
often  under  water  during  the  rainy  season. 

51 


52  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


The  high  table-lands  of  the  interior  are,  on  the  whole, 
the  best  parts  of  Ecuador,  enjoying  a  temperate  and 
springlike  climate,  where  people  can  live  in  comfort  even 
on  the  equator,  the  year  around. 

The  sail  up  the  Guayas,  Ecuador’s  great  river,  is  most 
enjoyable.  At  its  mouth  it  widens  out  into  a  vast  bay 
sixty  miles  across,  at  the  entrance  to  which  is  the  island 
of  Puno,  where  Pizarro  landed  to  fit  out  his  expedition 
for  the  conquest  of  Peru.  For  forty  miles  up  this  great 
river,  the  largest  on  the  western  coast  of  South  America, 
we  steam,  before  we  reach  Guayaquil.  The  heavily- 
wooded  shores  on  either  side  always  are  kept  green  by 
the  over-abundant  rains.  Here  and  there  the  forests  give 
place  to  verdant  meadows  that  pasture  hundreds  of  cattle, 
and  that  look  from  the  distance  like  the  polders  of 
Holland. 

As  I  write  these  words  I  am  sitting  on  a  steamer’s  deck 
detained  for  days  by  quarantine  regulations  three  miles 
below  the  city  of  Guayaquil  which  looks  imposing  and 
picturesque  in  the  distance,  with  the  twin  white  turrets 
of  its  churches  and  its  red-tiled  houses  climbing  two  com¬ 
manding  green  hills  which  are  surmounted  by  forts.  Be¬ 
tween  these  hills  nestles  a  great  hospital,  the  most  neces¬ 
sary  building  in  all  the  city,  for  Guayaquil  is  a  notoriously 
unhealthy  place.  Yellow  fever  is  almost  always  epidemic, 
and  no  wonder.  “I  have  visited  many  of  the  death- 
holes  of  the  world,”  says  a  globe  traveller,  “but  I  have 
yet  to  find  one  whose  unsanitary  condition  equals  that  of 
Guayaquil.” 

My  own  experience  in  many  lands  justifies  this  sweep¬ 
ing  condemnation,  and  yet  Guayaquil  might  easily  be 
made  as  healthy  as  Havana  or  Panama,  if  only  a 
Colonel  Waring  or  a  Colonel  Gorgas  could  take  hold  of 
it.  It  could  readily  be  drained,  and,  even  without 
sewerage,  the  yellow  fever  could  be  stamped  out,  as 


ECUADOR 


53 


Colonel  Gorgas,  who  has  saved  Cuba  and  the  Isthmus 
from  the  pest,  told  me,  if  only  the  people  would  cover 
their  rain-water  barrels  with  mosquito -proof  cloth,  and 
see  that  no  holes  got  in  the  cloth, — an  almost  impossible 
condition  to  enforce  upon  20,000  rain-water  barrels  where 
mosquitoes  find  congenial  breeding-places. 

If  Guayaquil  looks  picturesque  from  a  distance,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  it  is  largely  distance  that  lends  enchant¬ 
ment  to  the  view,  and  a  near  approach  is  most  disillusion¬ 
ing.  Its  streets  are  slimy  and  dirty,  its  houses  unsub¬ 
stantial  in  appearance  but  suitable  to  the  earthquake 
belt,  for  they  are  built  of  timbers  and  bamboo  laths  so 
joined  together,  that,  even  in  a  severe  quake  they  sway 
and  creak  but  do  not  tumble  down. 

Nevertheless  this  unsubstantial  and  unsanitary  city  has 
a  large  and  growing  trade.  More  than  ten  millions  of 
dollars’  worth  of  imports  yearly  enter  Guayaquil  from 
Europe  and  the  United  States,  and  there  is  an  almost 
equally  large  export  trade  in  coffee,  hides,  cocoa  and 
rubber,  for  there  are  few  richer  coasts  in  all  North  and 
South  America  than  the  back  country  of  Guayaquil. 

As  I  write,  vast  quantities  of  water  weeds,  sensitive 
plants,  orchids  and  grasses,  and  now  and  then  a  big  log 
go  floating  by  our  steamer,  borne  on  the  swift  current  to 
the  sea.  When  the  tide  turns  some  of  these  floating 
islands  will  drift  back  again,  emblematic  of  the  trade 
that  floats  back  and  forth  from  all  the  world  through  the 
great  Guayas  estuary. 

But  Guayaquil,  though  the  chief  port  of  the  country, 
is  by  no  means  Ecuador,  or  the  most  interesting  part  of 
Ecuador,  for  that  lies  back  on  the  table-lands,  a  hundred 
miles  from  the  coast.  This  has  always  been  the  chief 
centre  of  population  and  has  always  contained  the  po¬ 
litical  capital  of  the  country.  Quito  is  half  as  high  again 
as  Denver,  and,  from  its  eyrie,  a  mile  and  a-half  in  the 


54  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


air,  looks  down  on  the  capital  of  every  other  country  in 
the  world  except  that  of  the  sister  republic  of  Bolivia. 

Two  lines  of  high  mountains  stretch  through  the  table¬ 
lands  of  Ecuador  from  north  to  south,  and  between  these 
lies  a  comparatively  level  plateau  some  forty  miles  in 
width,  and  from  six  thousand  to  ten  thousand  feet  or 
more  above  the  sea.  This  table-land  is  subdivided  by 
other  ranges  of  hills  running  east  and  west,  called  rendos 
or  knots,  that  cut  the  plateau  into  eight  great  sections, 
so  that  the  table-lands  of  Ecuador  have  been  compared  to 
a  huge  ladder,  of  which  the  rendos  are  the  rungs  and  the 
two  ranges  of  Andes  the  side  pieces.  Quito  lies  in  the 
second  of  the  eight  sub-plateaux,  counting  from  the  north, 
and  is  thus  much  nearer  to  Bogota,  the  capital  of  Co¬ 
lombia,  than  to  Lima,  the  capital  of  the  sister  republic 
on  the  south. 

All  this  vast  and  temperate  plateau,  where  Indian  corn 
and  the  potato  were  indigenous,  and  where  wheat  and 
barley,  introduced  from  Europe,  flourish,  was  occupied 
in  the  days  before  the  Spanish  conquest  by  the  Caras,  a 
nation  much  like  the  Incas,  but  less  warlike  and  less  well 
disciplined.  Their  civilization,  however,  was  of  a  similar 
character.  They  possessed  large  cities,  carried  agri¬ 
culture  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection,  and  for  400  years 
had  been  governed  by  a  line  of  kings,  called  Shiris. 
The  fourteenth  Shiri,  Hualcopo,  became  king  in  1430, 
and  was  the  last  but  one  of  the  native  Caras  who  ruled 
this  interesting  race,  for  during  his  reign  the  Incas  from 
the  south  made  war  upon  them,  and  in  the  reign  of  his 
son  Cacha,  the  fifteenth  and  last  Shiri,  the  conquest  of 
the  Incas  was  completed  and  the  Shiri  was  slain. 

History  now  moves  rapidly  in  the  Quito  empire. 
Huaina  Capac,  the  Great,  the  Inca  general  who  finally 
conquered  the  Caras,  settled  down  in  his  conquered  prov¬ 
inces,  married  the  daughter  of  the  last  Shiri,  and  ruled 


ECUADOR 


55 


as  his  legitimate  successor.  But  the  rule  of  the  Incas  in 
Ecuador  was  not  to  be  a  long  one,  for  the  second  Inca 
emperor,  Atahuallpa,  began  to  reign  in  1525,  a  fateful 
period  for  Ecuador  and  Peru,  for  Caras  and  Incas  alike, 
since,  even  then,  the  Spaniards  were  beginning  to  make 
their  cruel  and  bloodthirsty  way  down  the  west  coast  of 
South  America. 

In  1524  the  notorious  Pizarro  made  his  first  unsuccess¬ 
ful  trip  from  Panama  in  a  small  vessel  which  had  been 
built  by  Balboa.  But  his  resources  were  inadequate,  and 
he  soon  put  back  to  Panama.  The  next  year,  in  1525, 
the  very  year  that  Atahuallpa  began  to  reign  in  Ecuador, 
Pizarro  headed  a  larger  expedition  and  sailed  down  the 
coast  of  Colombia,  almost  reaching  the  northern  border 
of  Ecuador.  Here  he  found  some  natives  coming  north 
on  a  great  seagoing  raft  laden  with  cloth,  silver  work, 
metal  mirrors  and  other  goods.  All  these  things  whetted 
the  avaricious  appetite  of  Pizarro,  but  he  was  not  yet 
strong  enough  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  these  highly 
civilized  races  of  which  the  raftsmen  told  him,  and  again 
he  paused,  sending  his  lieutenant,  Almagro,  back  for  a 
larger  force. 

There  is  a  rare  plot  for  an  old  Greek  tragedy  in  the 
fateful  way  in  which  Inca  and  Spaniard,  unknown  to 
each  other,  were  coming  each  to  meet  the  other,  to  settle 
very  soon  in  bloody  conflict  the  destiny  of  a  continent. 
The  Inca  from  the  south  had  overwhelmed  the  Caras,  the 
Spaniard  from  the  north  was  coming  down  to  overwhelm 
the  Inca  and  wrest  from  him  his  hard-won  victory. 

While  Pizarro  was  waiting  for  reinforcements  and 
making  his  first  ineffectual  voyages,  Atahuallpa,  the 
Inca  conqueror  of  Ecuador,  and  his  brother  Huascar,  who 
had  been  given  the  southern  kingdom  of  Peru,  were  wag¬ 
ing  a  sanguine,  fratricidal  war,  weakening  their  own 
forces,  and,  unconsciously  preparing  the  way  for  the 


56  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


easier  conquest  of  the  Spaniard.  In  this  seven  years’ 
war  Atahuallpa,  his  troops  under  the  command  of  the 
famous  general  Quizquiz,  was  completely  successful,  his 
brother  Huascar  was  captured,  and  the  emperor  started 
south  for  Cajamarca,  just  beyond  the  Ecuadorian  border, 
to  assume  rule  over  the  whole  Inca  empire,  when  he 
heard  a  startling  piece  of  news. 

If  he  could  have  understood  its  full  significance  it 
would  have  seemed  still  more  startling.  It  was  no  other 
than  that  200  men  with  pale  faces  and  huge  animals  of 
which  they  sometimes  seemed  to  form  a  part,  and  with 
tubes  in  their  hands  that  belched  out  fire  and  death,  had 
landed  on  his  shores,  and  were  making  their  way  inland. 

The  treacherous  capture  and  dastardly  murder  of 
Atahuallpa  belong  to  the  history  of  Peru  rather  than 
that  of  Ecuador,  and  we  need  not  linger  over  the  story 
here  longer  than  to  say  that  the  strategy  and  magnificent 
generalship  of  the  perfidious  Pizarro  were  entirely  suc¬ 
cessful,  and  the  Spanish  yoke  was  firmly  fastened  on  the 
necks  of  the  Ecuadorians  for  nearly  300  years. 

The  Spanish  rule  is  a  monotonous  tale  of  oppression, 
intrigue  and  petty  disputes  among  the  conquerors  them¬ 
selves.  The  people  of  Ecuador  were  practically  en¬ 
slaved,  though  as  this  is  largely  an  agricultural  country, 
the  common  people  suffered  less  from  their  conquerors 
than  the  poor  natives  of  Peru,  who  were  forced  to  make 
the  daily  tale  of  bricks  without  straw,  and  to  furnish 
gold  and  silver  to  satisfy  the  rapacious  cupidity  of  their 
conquerors. 

The  troubles  of  Spain  in  the  early  part  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century,  and  the  rise  of  Bolivar  of  Venezuela  as 
a  commanding  figure,  gave  the  people  of  Ecuador  their 
opportunity  for  independence,  which  they  were  not  slow 
to  embrace,  and  after  many  defeats  and  set-backs  they 
finally  achieved  it  under  General  Sucr6,  the  great  patriot 


ECUADOR 


57 


general,  in  a  decisive  battle  fought  on  the  24th  of  May, 
1822. 

At  first,  and  for  a  few  years,  Ecuador  was  incorporated 
into  the  Republic  of  Colombia,  but  the  union  was  a  forced 
and  distasteful  one,  and  in  1835  under  her  able  President 
Rocafuerte,  she  achieved  a  separate  national  existence, 
which  in  spite  of  many  revolutions  and  counter  revolu¬ 
tions,  she  has  maintained  ever  since. 

There  have  been  few  outstanding  names  in  Ecuador’s 
modern  history  that  the  world  cares  to  preserve.  Besides 
President  Rocafuerte,  Flores,  a  capable  but  unscrupulous 
general  who  made  himself  president  and  plunged  the 
country  into  unnecessary  war,  may  be  mentioned,  and 
President  Moreno  who  strove  hard  and  with  partial  suc¬ 
cess  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos  in  the  decade  and  a  half 
between  1860  and  1875.  In  the  latter  year,  Moreno,  who 
was  still  in  power,  was  deliberately  assassinated  in  the 
public  square  of  Quito. 

Since  then  it  has  been  the  old  monotonous  story  of 
civil  war  and  usurpation  and  dictatorship  and  plots  and 
counter  plots.  The  last  ten  years  seem  to  give  promise 
of  better  things,  and  to  show  that  Ecuador  like  her  sister 
republics,  to  the  south,  is  getting  tired  of  revolutions 
which  result  in  no  beneficent  evolution.  She  is  still, 
however,  one  of  the  most  backward  of  the  South  Ameri¬ 
can  states,  in  spite  of  her  magnificent  resources  and 
splendid  situation  in  the  rain  belt  of  the  continent,  and 
with  her  unequalled  harbour  of  Guayaquil  from  which  to 
ship  her  products  to  all  the  world. 

Because  the  Ecuadorians  have  given  more  attention  to 
politics  than  to  commerce,  to  revolutionary  cabals  than 
to  steady  industry,  this  country,  as  large  as  half  a  dozen 
New  Englands,  does  not  produce  as  much  wealth  as  a 
single  second  class  New  England  city.  In  its  cocoa  alone 
it  has  a  source  of  inexhaustible  riches.  Of  this  staple, 


58  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


Ecuador  produces  more  than  any  other  country,  while 
rubber,  sugar  cane,  tropical  fruits  of  all  kinds  and 
beautiful  woods  of  every  sort,  add  to  her  exportable 
wealth. 

But  the  better  day  is  dawning.  American  enterprise 
is  building  a  railway  from  Guayaquil  to  Quito,  which 
will  soon  be  completed,  and  will  connect  this  ancient  and 
historic  city  of  the  Incas  and  the  Caras  with  the  outside 
world  upon  which  in  her  sleepy  isolation  and  from  her 
lofty  height  she  has  so  long  looked  down.  Then  Quito 
will  no  longer  be  u  a  hundred  years  behind  the  moon,” 
as  the  people  of  Guayaquil  say.  The  fresh  breezes  of 
modern  civilization,  too,  will  doubtless  blow  away  some 
of  the  cobwebs  of  priestcraft  and  superstition  which  must 
be  dissipated  before  Ecuador  can  take  her  rightful  place 
among  the  advanced  nations  of  the  world.  Now  Quito  is 
sometimes  called  “the  little  mother  of  the  Pope”  and 
every  fourth  person  you  meet,  it  is  said,  is  a  priest  or  a 
nun  or  an  ecclesiastic  of  some  sort. 

The  railroad  is  a  great  civilizer.  The  Bible  is  making 
its  way  through  the  persistent  efforts  of  the  colporteurs 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  into  the  moun¬ 
tain  fastnesses.  The  Protestant  missionary  will  go  with 
the  Protestant  Bible,  and  Ecuador  will  yet  be  redeemed 
from  its  four  centuries  of  oppression,  revolution  and  un¬ 
rest. 


VII 


CURIOSITIES  OF  TRAVEL  ON  THE  WEST  COAST 

The  Steamers,  the  Cargoes,  the  People — Distances  and  Fares — Comfort¬ 
able  Cabins— A  Floating  Market — Cows,  Pigs  and  Fowls— From  Hot  to 
Cold — From  Wet  to  Dry — What  the  Natives  Have  to  Sell — Panama 
Hats— Birds  Above  and  Fish  Below— An  Entertaining  Journey  for  a 
Naturalist. 

TRAVELLING  on  the  west  coast  of  South 
America  is  different  in  many  respects  from 
travelling  in  any  other  part  of  the  world.  The 
steamers  are  different ;  the  cargo  is  different  j  the  people 
are  different ;  the  food  is  ^different — but  that  is  another 
story. 

The  two  principal  lines,  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation 
Company,  a  British  concern,  and  a  line  belonging  to  the 
Chileans,  have  pooled  their  issues,  and  eliminated  com¬ 
petition,  so  that  the  usual  results  have  followed — high 
fares,  poor  fare,  and  slow  transit. 

The  distance  between  Panama  and  Valparaiso  is  con¬ 
siderably  less  than  that  between  New  York  and  Liver¬ 
pool  ;  but  the  time  consumed  in  making  the  journey  is 
four  times  as  great,  and  the  ticket  costs  nearly  four  times 
as  much. 

The  fare  from  Panama  to  Guayaquil  is  $99,  for  a  dis¬ 
tance  less  than  eight  hundred  miles,  or  more  than  twelve 
cents  a  mile.  To  Valparaiso  the  fare  is  $220,  or  eight 
cents  a  mile,  while  the  average  rate  for  steamer  travel  is 
not  more  than  two  or  three  cents  a  mile. 

To  be  sure,  by  buying  a  round-trip  ticket  from  New 
York  back  to  New  York  the  fares  can  be  averaged  up  so  as 

59 


60  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUmTY 


to  make  the  cost  tolerably  reasonable ;  but  before  any  con¬ 
siderable  passenger  traffic  can  be  expected  on  the  west 
coast  of  South  America  the  local  fares  must  be  reduced 
to  much  lower  figures. 

When  one  considers  what  he  gets  for  his  money,  the 
disproportion  in  price  seems  still  more  unreasonable,  for 
food  which  would  hardly  be  served  to  third-class  pas¬ 
sengers  on  Atlantic  steamers,  is  the  best  that  the  first- 
class  passengers  on  the  west  coast  can  expect. 

Stale  bread  ;  stale  butter  that  runs  like  salve  and  is 
strong  enough,  according  to  the  ancient  witticism,  to 
“go  alone  and  speak  for  itself”  ;  a  condensed  abomina¬ 
tion  instead  of  milk  fresh  from  the  cow  ;  a  limited  supply 
of  ice,  which  lasts  only  half  way  down  the  coast ;  a 
family  ice-chest  for  a  large  steamer,  instead  of  a  cold- 
storage  room ;  leathery  meat  and  antiquated,  skinny 
chickens,  these  are  some  of  the  things  that  people  who 
pay  twelve  cents  a  mile  for  their  passage  money  must  ex¬ 
pect  to  get  for  it  on  the  west  coast. 

But  this  is  the  disagreeable  side,  which  we  will  dispose 
of  first,  and  then  turn  to  the  silver  side  of  the  cloud,  for 
travelling  certainly  has  such  a  side,  even  on  the  west 
coast  of  South  America. 

The  boats  are  built  for  hot  weather,  and  the  staterooms 
are  large  and  airy,  and  usually  not  too  full,  until  one 
nears  Valparaiso  when  they  are  often  scandalously  over¬ 
crowded.  To  be  sure,  they  often  have  occupants  that  are 
not  put  down  on  the  passenger  list,  occupants  that  would 
put  an  American  housewife  to  shame  ;  and  it  is  also  true 
that  in  some  ports,  especially  Guayaquil,  the  mosquitoes 
are  almost  unbearable,  and  no  screens  are  furnished  for 
window  or  bed.  But  travellers  must  expect  to  be 
troubled  with  “such  small  deer”  in  tropical  countries. 

On  the  whole,  the  cabins  are  comfortable  and  clean, 
the  officers  friendly  and  obliging,  and  the  decks  roomy, 


TRAVELS  ON  THE  WEST  COAST 


61 


and  if  the  passenger  makes  up  his  mind  to  the  heat  and 
the  inevitable  discomforts  of  the  tropics,  he  can  pass  a 
fairly  cheerful  four  weeks  on  the  voyage  from  Panama 
to  Valparaiso. 

Our  steamer  itself  is  a  constant  source  of  interest  that 
never  palls.  Most  steamers  are  built  to  carry  freight  and 
passengers  only ;  the  Guatemala ,  like  the  other  west- 
coast  craft,  besides  being  a  common  carrier  of  freight  and 
passengers,  is  a  floating  market,  a  floating  hennery,  a 
floating  stockyard,  and  slaughter-house,  and  a  floating 
aviary  as  well. 

Go  to  the  upper  deck,  and  you  will  hear  the  crowing 
of  cocks,  the  cackling  of  hens,  and  the  quacking  of 
ducks,  while  the  occasional  gobble  of  a  turkey  will  lend 
variety  to  the  chorus. 

Go  below,  and  you  will  hear  the  lowing  of  cows  and 
the  grunting  of  pigs ;  and  on  certain  days  the  butcher 
will  take  the  lives  of  some  of  these  innocents,  and  will 
truss  them  up  on  the  deck  below,  just  under  your  state¬ 
room,  and  leave  them  hanging  there  to  cool  for  hours,  in 
plain  sight  of  all  the  passengers. 

The  aviary  department  of  our  ship  is  always  an  inter¬ 
esting  one,  for  the  feathered  tribe  is  represented  in  great 
variety.  Parrots  and  paroquets  are  in  the  majority,  for 
they  are  found  everywhere  along  these  shores,  and  are 
brought  for  sale  on  board  in  large  numbers  by  the  natives. 
Many  passengers  yield  to  their  blandishments,  and  carry 
home  a  parrot  or  two.  Besides,  we  carry  other  birds  in 
large  numbers  ;  canaries  from  Chile,  redbirds  from  Peru, 
and  an  occasional  long-legged  bird  something  like  a  crane 
that  hops  solemnly  along  the  deck,  inviting  the  passengers 
to  scratch  the  back  of  its  neck,  for  which  attention  it 
seems  genuinely  grateful. 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  our  steamer  is  the 
travelling  market,  which  I  venture  to  think,  on  the 


62  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


scale  on  which  it  is  here  developed,  is  peculiar  to  the 
west  coast  of  South  America.  The  after  part  of  our  ship 
has  large  deck  space  running  from  rail  to  rail,  clear 
across  the  ship  on  two  decks,  which  at  first  seemed  to  me 
an  admirable  place  for  the  passengers  to  enjoy  a  prom¬ 
enade. 

I  soon  found,  however,  that  it  was  not  for  us,  but  for 
the  traders  to  whom  the  space  had  been  sold  at  a  high 
price.  Soon  after  leaving  Panama  these  traders  began  to 
divide  it  up  into  sections,  with  rough  boards,  and  at 
Guayaquil  they  took  on  board  thousands  of  bunches  of 
bananas,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  oranges,  and  tons 
of  mangoes,  limes  and  green  vegetables,  which  they  ex¬ 
pected  to  sell  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  twenty  or  more 
towns  at  which  the  steamer  will  stop  on  its  way  to 
Valparaiso. 

Soon  after  leaving  Guayaquil,  where  rain  falls  in  tor¬ 
rents,  where  everything  is  green  and  all  tropical  plants 
grow  in  lush  luxuriance,  we  come  to  the  dry  belt  of 
South  America,  where  practically  it  never  rains.  At 
noon  of  one  day  the  ship  will  steam  out  of  the  bay  of 
Guayaquil  in  a  pouring  tropical  shower,  during  which, 
perhaps,  an  inch  of  rain  will  fall  in  an  hour.  At  mid¬ 
night  of  the  same  day  it  will  pass  a  point  on  the  Peruvian 
shore  close  to  the  Ecuadorian  border  where  it  has  not 
rained  for  sixteen  years  and  may  not  rain  for  sixteen 
years  to  come. 

This  sudden  transition  is  explained  by  some  as  due  to 
the  cold  Antarctic  current,  which  here  and  for  hundreds 
of  miles  south  strikes  the  coast  of  South  America,  pre¬ 
venting  the  formation  of  moisture  by  congealing  the  air. 
The  result,  which  naturally  comes  with  the  absence  of 
rain  and  the  impossibility  of  irrigation,  is  the  complete 
lack  of  vegetation  ;  and  every  orange  and  banana,  every 
potato  and  plantain  and  cabbage,  must  be  brought  from 


TRAVELS  ON  THE  WEST  COAST 


63 


the  interior,  or  else  down  the  coast  in  these  trading- 
steamers.  This  accounts  for  the  large  market  on  our 
ship  and  for  the  thriving  business  in  fruit  and  vegetables 
which  our  floating  traders  carry  on. 

But  the  trading  is  not  altogether  a  one-sided  affair. 
The  people  from  the  shore  have  something  to  sell,  though 
it  must  be  confessed  it  is  often  a  rather  pitiable  little 
assortment  of  goods.  There  is  a  woman  with  a  mangy 
parrot  tied  to  her  by  a  string  about  the  parrot’s  neck, 
which  every  now  and  then  brings  the  poor  bird  up  with 
a  sudden  jerk  when  he  wanders  a  little  too  far. 

There  is  another  with  a  small  collection  of  mother-of- 
pearl  shells,  which  she  offers  to  us  for  ten  times  their  real 
value. 

A  man  with  a  monkey  near  by  is  showing  off  his 
tricks,  while  another  one  offers  us  an  ant-eater,  a  gentle 
little  creature  with  appealing  eyes,  an  extraordinarily 
long  nose,  and  a  large  bump  of  curiosity.  He  wanders 
about,  poking  his  nose  into  unexplored  corners  so  far  as 
his  tether  will  allow  him  to  go.  This  ant-eater  is  about 
the  size  of  a  small  cat,  and  has  a  long  ringed  tail,  some¬ 
thing  like  an  opossum’s. 

But  the  chief  articles  of  sale  which  merchants  from  the 
shore  have  to  offer  in  Ecuador  and  northern  Peru  are 
Panama  hats,  which,  by  the  way,  are  not  made  in 
Panama,  and  cannot  be  bought  in  Panama  except  at  ex¬ 
travagant  prices.  But  in  Guayaquil,  and  Payta,  the  first 
large  town  in  Peru  on  the  north,  are  the  native  homes  of 
the  Panama  hats,  and  here  the  hatters  swarm  on  board 
with  hats  of  all  sizes  and  prices. 

But  do  not  think  you  can  pick  up  a  bargain  for  a  few 
dimes.  “Genuine  Panamas”  may  be  sold  in  the  New 
York  or  Chicago  stores  for  two  dollars  apiece  ;  but,  when 
you  get  to  Guayaquil,  where  they  are  made,  you  will  find 
that  hats  of  any  quality  will  cost  from  ten  dollars  to  two 


64  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


hundred  dollars  in  silver,  or  half  as  much  in  gold,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  fineness  of  the  material  and  the  quality  of 
the  u  weave.  ” 

The  average  price  for  a  fine  hat  is  perhaps  thirty  dol¬ 
lars  in  silver,  but  three  times  that  sum  is  asked  for  hats 
of  extraordinary  texture.  We  are  told  that  they  are 
woven  by  hand  under  water,  and  that  some  of  the  finest 
kinds  represent  a  year’s  labour. 

For  weary  days  and  nights  after  leaving  the  shores  of 
Ecuador  we  steam  by  unbroken  deserts,  the  white  waves 
breaking  on  whitish-gray  rocks,  while  gaunt,  dry,  tree¬ 
less  hills  rise  behind  the  cliffs.  Gulls  and  graceful  alba¬ 
trosses  follow  our  ship,  and  occasional  porpoises  come 
lunging  at  us  from  the  sea,  or  lead  our  course,  by  rang¬ 
ing  themselves  like  so  many  horses  at  our  prow,  and 
swimming  without  any  apparent  effort,  for  miles,  within 
a  few  feet  of  our  iron  keel,  always  keeping  at  the  same 
distance. 

As  we  approach  the  Guano  islands  animal  life  of  all 
kinds  increases  at  a  wonderful  rate.  The  sea  swarms 
with  fish,  porpoises,  seals  and  sea  lions.  Clouds  of  birds, 
ducks,  divers,  gulls,  loons,  fill  the  air,  occasionally  dark¬ 
ening  the  sun,  and  extending  in  unbroken  columns 
through  the  air  for  miles.  Sometimes  they  go  fishing 
with  one  accord,  and  millions  of  them  swoop  down  upon 
their  unsuspecting  finny  prey,  which  are  breaking  the 
water  in  every  direction,  while  the  islands  near  by  are 
black  with  the  birds  that  have  gorged  themselves  until 
they  can  eat  no  more.  It  is  a  most  entrancing  journey 
for  a  student  of  natural  history. 

At  the  various  stopping-places  on  this  harbourless 
coast  swarthy  Spanish -speaking  passengers  in  gay  attire, 
the  men  affecting  particularly  gaudy  neckties  and  waist¬ 
coats,  join  our  ship ;  and  thus,  with  the  traders  in  the 


TEAVELS  ON  THE  WEST  COAST 


65 


rear,  our  fellow  passengers  on  the  forward  deck,  the  gulls 
and  albatrosses  in  the  air,  and  the  porpoises  in  the  sea, 
the  tedium  of  the  long  voyage  is  mitigated,  as  we  slowly 
make  our  way  towards  the  tropic  of  Capricorn. 


VIII 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  INCAS 

k  Fascinating  History— The  Vast  Territory  of  the  Incas— Their  Origin— 
Humboldt’s  Impression  of  the  Andes— Nature  in  Her  Sterner  As¬ 
pects — The  Irrigation  Works  of  the  Incas — Their  Beautiful  Fabrics — 
Their  Wonderful  Buildings — The  Magnificent  Ruins  of  Cuzco — The 
Luxurious  Gardens  of  the  Emperors— The  Common  People — Social¬ 
ism  Tempered  with  Despotism— The  Incas  and  the  Japanese — The 
Great  Temple  at  Cuzco — Contrasts  and  Contradictions. 

THE  ancient  history  of  Peru  is  so  unique  and  fas¬ 
cinating  that  in  any  book  dealing  with  South 
America  it  deserves  a  chapter  to  itself.  Indeed, 
modern  South  America  can  scarcely  be  understood  with¬ 
out  reference  to  the  great  race  which  so  long  dominated 
its  western  coast,  and  whose  descendants  to-day  far  out¬ 
number  all  the  other  races  put  together. 

The  empire  of  the  Incas  stretched  along  the  Pacific 
coast  for  nearly  3, 000  miles,  embracing  the  territory  to¬ 
day  claimed  by  Ecuador,  Peru,  Bolivia,  Chile  and  a  part 
of  the  Argentine  republic.  Its  breadth  was  more  inde¬ 
terminate,  for  its  eastern  border  straggled  off  into  the  un¬ 
explored  Amazonian  regions,  occupied  by  savage  races, 
which  were  never  thoroughly  subdued  by  the  Incas. 1 

The  origin  of  the  Incas,  like  that  of  most  great  conquer¬ 
ing  races,  is  lost  in  the  shadows  of  antiquity,  and  in  order 
to  make  their  origin  and  ancestors  more  impressive,  they 
themselves  ascribed  the  beginnings  of  their  nation  to  the 
gods  from  whom  their  rulers  had  descended  in  unbroken 
succession.  Without  going  into  their  fantastic  my- 

1  The  word  Inca  is  here  employed,  according  to  the  common  usage, 
as  referring  to  the  Peruvian  people,  through  strictly  speaking  it  applies 
only  to  their  rulers. 


66 


THE  THRONE  OF  THE  ANCIENT  INCAS. 


MODERN  DESCENDANTS  OF  INCAS. 


THE  EMPIEE  OF  THE  INCAS 


67 


thology  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  know  that  at  the  time  of 
the  Spanish  conquest  they  had  defeated  the  almost  equally 
civilized  nations  of  the  north,  the  Caras,  who  lived  on  the 
table-lands  of  Ecuador,  and  were  monarchs  of  all  they 
surveyed,  from  the  second  degree  north  of  the  equator  to 
the  thirty-seventh  degree  south.  They  were  the  Eoman 
conquerors  of  the  new  world.  Their  world  was  a  limited 
one,  like  that  of  the  Eomans,  but  all  that  they  knew  was 
theirs,  and  it  was  no  mean  empire. 

“So  immense  is  the  scale  on  which  nature  works  in 
these  regions, ”  says  Humboldt,  “that  it  is  only  when 
viewed  from  a  great  distance  that  the  spectator  can  in 
any  degree  comprehend  the  relation  of  the  several  parts 
to  the  stupendous  whole.  Few  of  the  works  of  Nature 
indeed  are  calculated  to  produce  impressions  of  higher 
sublimity  than  the  aspect  of  this  coast,  as  it  is  gradually 
unfolded  to  the  eye  of  the  mariner  sailing  on  the  distant 
waters  of  the  Pacific  ;  where  mountain  is  seen  to  rise 
above  mountain,  and  Chimborazo,  with  its  glorious 
canopy  of  snow,  glittering  far  above  the  cloud  crowns 
the  whole  as  with  a  celestial  diadem.’ ’ 

Yet,  as  the  modern  traveller  views  the  coast  of  the 
Incas,  while  Humboldt’s  glowing  words  are  all  true  of  the 
magnificent  scenery,  no  country  could  seem  to  be  less 
fitted  for  the  development  of  a  great  agricultural  nation, 
such  as  the  Peruvians  preeminently  were.  Barren  league 
succeeds  barren  league,  from  a  point  just  south  of  the 
equator  for  thousands  of  miles  farther  south.  Dreary, 
brown,  sunburned  shores,  where  it  practically  never  rains, 
rise  gradually  to  bare,  forbidding,  inaccessible  peaks  a 
few  miles  from  the  shore.  Travelling  hills  of  sand  sweep 
over  the  plains  of  the  interior  swallowing  up  highways 
and  cultivated  fields  alike,  and  it  would  seem  that  a  more 
inhospitable  coast  was  never  picked  out  for  the  abode  of 
man. 


68  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Nevertheless,  as  the  hardiest  races  have  always  flour¬ 
ished  where  nature  presents  the  unkindest  obstacles,  as 
old  England  and  New  England  and  Holland  and  Scan¬ 
dinavia  prove,  so  ancient  Peru  was  no  exception  to  the 
rule,  and  here,  on  her  plateaux,  was  developed  a  race, 
the  most  wonderful  of  modern  times,  which  had  never 
come  in  contact  with  European  civilization.  Their  irri¬ 
gated  gardens,  their  terraced  rice-fields,  their  vast  aque¬ 
ducts,  their  splendid  roads,  their  great  cities  and  magnif¬ 
icent  temples,  seem  all  the  more  wonderful  when  we  con¬ 
sider  the  obstacles  they  had  to  overcome  in  developing 
their  empire. 

Long  before  any  modern  government  thought  of  insti¬ 
tuting  a  department  of  agriculture,  the  Incas  had  theirs 
organized.  Five  hundred  years  before  our  government 
turned  its  attention  seriously  to  irrigating  our  desert 
land,  the  Incas  had  built  great  sluices,  and  aqueducts  of 
stone  slabs  neatly  fitted  together,  one  of  which  was  nearly 
five  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  conveyed  water  for 
millions  of  acres  of  thirsty  ground  along  all  its  course. 
In  another  case  a  solid  mountain  was  tunnelled  through  to 
provide  for  the  overflow  of  a  lake  that  sometimes  inun¬ 
dated  its  shores,  thus  using  the  dangerous  surplus  water 
for  desert  land  that  needed  it. 

The  honour  put  upon  agricultural  pursuits  was  most 
extraordinary,  for  they  were  recognized,  as  they  truly 
are,  as  at  the  basis  of  all  national  prosperity.  At  one  of 
the  great  annual  festivals  the  Inca  himself,  the  mighty 
potentate  of  this  vast  empire,  the  descendant  of  the  gods, 
attended  by  his  court  in  royal  state,  and  in  the  presence 
of  a  vast  concourse  of  people,  turned  up  the  earth  with 
a  golden  plow,  “thus  consecrating  the  occupation  of  the 
husbandman,  as  one  worthy  to  be  followed  by  the  Chil¬ 
dren  of  the  Sun.” 

If  agriculture  was  the  basis  of  their  civilization,  the 


THE  EMPIEE  OF  THE  INCAS 


69 


Peruvians  did  not  despise  manufactures,  in  which  they 
were  almost  equally  proficient,  though  their  wants  were 
simple  and  the  variety  of  their  manufactures  few,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  those  of  our  own  more  complicated  modern 
life.  But  what  they  did  manufacture  was  often  made 
with  an  exquisite  fineness  which  would  put  to  shame  our 
machine-made  shoddy. 

Their  vicufias,  or  long-wooled  sheep,  afforded  a  splen¬ 
did  staple  for  the  finest  cloth,  which  often  had  almost  the 
fineness  and  lustre  of  silk,  while  the  colours  with  which 
they  dyed  their  cloth  were  the  despair  of  European  fac¬ 
tories.  In  the  molding  of  clay  into  beautiful  and  fan¬ 
tastic  pottery,  in  the  polishing  of  metal  and  stone  mir¬ 
rors,  the  fashioning  of  copper  utensils  and  tools,  and  the 
making  of  gold  and  silver  ornaments,  the  ancient  Peru¬ 
vians  were  most  expert.  Their  weapons  were  bows  and 
arrows,  spears  and  swords,  and  so  perfect  were  they  in 
tempering  copper,  mixed  with  a  small  amount  of  tin  (a 
lost  art,  and  one  never  rediscovered  by  Europeans)  that 
their  tools  had  a  razor  edge  scarcely  surpassed  by  the 
finest  modern  steel,  though  they  knew  nothing  of  iron  or 
its  products. 

But  it  is  when  we  come  to  their  vast  and  substantial 
buildings  that  we  are  most  amazed.  How  a  primitive 
race  without  iron  tools,  without  modern  quarrying  and 
hoisting  machinery,  could  have  constructed  such  cities, 
such  palaces  and  such  temples,  is  almost  beyond  explana¬ 
tion.  Their  ruins  rank  with  the  pyramids  and  the  ruins 
of  Karnac  for  grandeur  and  extent.  The  city  of  Cuzco, 
the  capital  of  the  empire,  occupied  a  commanding  situa¬ 
tion  on  the  high  plateau  where  all  their  larger  cities  were 
built.  It  was  defended  by  a  great  fortress  on  a  rugged 
eminence  to  the  north  of  the  city,  as  well  situated  and  as 
strongly  defended,  apparently,  as  the  castle  of  Edinburgh. 
This  fortress  was  connected  by  underground  passages 


70  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


with  the  city  and  the  palaces  of  the  Incas,  whither  the 
rulers  and  the  people  could  escape  in  time  of  siege. 

The  fortress  and  galleries  were  built  of  solid  blocks 
of  stone,  so  nicely  adjusted  that  though  no  cement  was 
used  it  was  “impossible  to  introduce  even  the  blade  of 
a  knife  between  them.”  These  stones  were  measured  by 
an  ancient  Spanish  writer,  who  declares  that  some  of 
them  were  fully  thirty-eight  feet  long,  by  eighteen  broad, 
and  six  feet  thick.  “We  are  filled  with  astonishment,” 
says  Prescott,  “  when  we  consider  that  these  enormous 
masses  were  hewn  from  their  native  bed,  and  fashioned 
into  shape  by  a  people  ignorant  of  the  use  of  iron  ;  that 
they  were  brought  from  quarries  from  four  to  fifteen 
leagues  distant,  without  the  aid  of  beasts  of  burden  j  were 
transported  across  rivers  and  ravines,  were  raised  to  their 
elevated  position  on  the  sierra,  and  finally  adjusted  there 
with  the  nicest  accuracy,  without  the  knowledge  of  tools 
and  machinery  familiar  to  Europeans.” 

If  the  Incas  of  high  degree  built  magnificent  fortresses, 
aqueducts  and  roads,  they  also  indulged  in  gardens  and 
summer  palaces  that  were  as  exquisite  as  the  former  were 
grand  in  their  proportions.  Yucay,  the  favourite  resi¬ 
dence  of  the  ruling  Incas,  about  twenty  miles  from  the 
capital,  was  an  illustration  of  a  luxurious  palace  and  play¬ 
ground  which  the  Caesars  themselves  could  hardly  have 
surpassed. 

To  quote  again  from  Prescott,  to  whose  magnum  opus 
all  subsequent  writers  on  Peru  are  indebted  :  “  Here  (to 
Yucay)  when  wearied  with  the  toil  and  dust  of  the  city, 
they  (the  emperors)  loved  to  retreat  and  solace  them¬ 
selves  with  the  society  of  their  favourite  concubines,  wan¬ 
dering  amidst  groves  and  airy  gardens  that  shed  around 
their  soft  intoxicating  odours  and  lulled  the  senses  to 
voluptuous  repose.  Here,  too,  they  loved  to  indulge  in 
the  luxury  of  their  baths,  replenished  by  streams  of 


THE  EMPIEE  OF  THE  IHCAS 


71 


crystal  water  which  were  conducted  through  subterrane¬ 
ous  silver  channels  into  basins  of  gold.  The  spacious  gar¬ 
dens  were  stocked  with  numerous  varieties  of  plants  and 
flowers  that  grew  without  effort  in  this  temperate  region 
of  the  tropics  while  parterres  of  a  more  extraordinary 
kind  were  planted  by  their  side,  glowing  with  the  various 
forms  of  vegetable  life  skillfully  imitated  in  gold  and  sil¬ 
ver.  ...  If  this  dazzling  picture  staggers  the  faith 
of  the  reader,  he  may  reflect  that  the  Peruvian  moun¬ 
tains  teemed  with  gold  ;  that  the  natives  understood  the 
art  of  working  the  mines  to  a  considerable  extent ;  that 
none  of  the  ore  was  converted  into  coin,  and  that  the 
whole  of  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  sovereign  for  his 
own  exclusive  benefit  whether  for  purposes  of  utility  or 
ornament.’ ’ 

But  what  about  the  common  people  in  this  vast  empire 
of  luxury  and  wealth  1  Alas  !  they  shared  but  little  in 
the  comforts  and  none  at  all  in  the  luxury  of  their  rulers. 
Most  interesting  in  view  of  modern  socialistic  ideas  is  the 
story  of  the  Inca  state  from  the  standpoint  of  the  common 
people.  From  many  points  of  view  they  exemplified  the 
tenets  of  the  extreme  socialist.  Among  them  there  was 
no  wealth  and  no  poverty,  at  least  no  suffering.  There 
was  no  private  ownership  and  no  corporate  greed,  if  we 
except  the  greed  of  the  Incas  and  their  families.  All  the 
people  possessed  all  things  in  common  and  there  was  “  no 
private  ownership  of  public  utilities”  or  of  any  other 
kind  of  utilities. 

The  state  looked  after  the  people  with  a  jealous  eye, 
from  the  day  they  were  born  to  the  day  they  died.  The 
state  prescribed  where  they  should  live,  what  they  should 
wear,  what  they  should  eat,  whom  they  should  marry. 
The  state  owned  all  their  time,  and  as  they  had  no  cur¬ 
rency  and  few  exchangeable  commodities,  the  people  paid 
for  everything  with  their  time. 


72  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


It  was  socialism  tempered  with  despotism,  or  des¬ 
potism  tempered  with  socialism,  but  withal  a  most  benev¬ 
olent  despotism,  which  looked  after  every  man,  woman 
and  child  in  all  Incadom,  as  a  kind  farmer  would  look 
after  his  fat  cattle  and  hogs  and  choice  poultry,  and,  it 
must  be  confessed,  from  much  the  same  motive. 

For  at  least  four  hundred  years  the  empire  thus  built 
up  existed,  and  waxed  stronger  and  stronger,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards,  no  one  can  tell 
that  it  might  not  have  embraced  the  whole  of  South  Amer¬ 
ica  within  its  domains,  and  advanced  northward,  until  it 
came  in  contact  with  the  equally  marvellous  civilization 
of  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico. 

It  cannot  truly  be  said  that  the  common  people  were 
rebellious  or  even  restive  under  this  rule.  In  fact,  so  far 
as  history  records  their  views,  they  were  among  the  most 
contented  of  peoples ;  hardworking,  industrious,  un¬ 
imaginative,  fully  believing  that  their  Inca  was  a  descend¬ 
ant  of  the  sun,  that  he  had  a  right  to  command  their  time 
and  demand  their  service. 

All  products  of  farm  or  loom  were  divided  into  three 
classes,  one  third  of  which  belonged  to  the  Inca,  another 
third  to  the  Sun  (i.  e.,  to  the  elaborate  ceremonial  worship 
of  which  the  Sun  was  the  centre, — in  other  words,  to  their 
religion)  while  the  remainder,  which  was  often  the  small¬ 
est  third,  was  for  the  sustenance  of  the  common  people, 
though,  in  times  of  famine,  and  distress,  part  of  the  por¬ 
tion  of  grain  that  went  to  the  Inca  came  back  to  the 
common  people  from  his  benevolent  (?)  hand. 

Religion  was  doubtless  used  by  the  emperor  of  Peru  as 
the  chief  factor  to  keep  their  subjects  in  a  proper  and 
submissive  frame  of  mind.  Since  the  emperor  was  a 
direct  descendant  of  the  gods  and  shared  the  godlike 
nature,  nothing  that  he  could  ask  of  his  people  was  too 
great  and  nothing  could  be  unreasonable.  Among  the 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  INCAS 


73 


Japanese  of  to-day  we  find  the  only  modern  prototype  of 
the  Incas,  and  there  we  find  but  a  feeble  reflection,  for 
though  their  emperor  is  all  but  divine,  and  their  religion 
is  patriotism,  the  modern  spirit  has  so  permeated  the 
Japanese  people  and  emperor  alike,  that  he  would  be 
very  unlikely  to  make  unreasonable  demands  of  his  loyal 
subjects. 

Since  their  religion  was  the  state,  and  the  state  was 
their  religion,  we  are  not  surprised  to  read  of  temples  of 
unparallelled  magnificence  among  the  ancient  Incas.  To 
the  one  supreme  ruler  of  the  universe,  the  invisible  God, 
of  whom  they  seemed  to  have  some  just  but  vague  ideas, 
the  Peruvians  never  erected  any  temple.  He  could  not 
be  worshipped  in  a  temple  made  with  hands,  but  to  the 
sun,  whose  worship  was  especially  dear  to  them,  they 
erected  innumerable  temples,  and  also  to  the  moon,  “his 
sister  wife,”  and  to  the  stars,  especially  to  Venus  known 
to  them  by  the  name  of  Chasca,  or  the  “youth  with  the 
long  and  curling  locks.”  They  also  consecrated  temples 
to  the  Thunder  and  Lightning  and  to  the  Rainbow,  but 
the  Sun  received  their  chief  homage,  and  to  him  were 
dedicated  their  most  gorgeous  temples. 

The  most  magnificent  of  these  was  built  at  Cuzco.  The 
exterior  was  massive  and  substantial  in  the  extreme,  and 
a  Spaniard  who  saw  it  in  its  best  estate  declared  that 
“  only  two  edifices  in  all  Spain  could  be  compared  with 
it.”  But  the  interior  of  the  temple,  we  are  told,  was  the 
most  worthy  of  admiration.  “  It  was  literally  a  mine  of 
gold.  On  the  western  wall  was  emblazoned  a  representa¬ 
tion  of  the  deity,  consisting  of  a  human  countenance  look¬ 
ing  forth  from  amidst  innumerable  rays  of  light  which 
emanated  from  it  in  every  direction,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  sun  is  often  personified  by  us.  The  figure  was 
engraved  on  a  massive  plate  of  gold  of  enormous  dimen¬ 
sions,  thickly  powdered  with  emeralds  and  precious 


74  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


stones.  .  .  .  Gold,  in  the  figurative  language  of  the 

people,  was  1  the  tears  wept  by  the  sun,  ’  and  every  part 
of  the  interior  glowed  with  burnished  plates  and  studs  of 
the  precious  metal.  The  cornices  which  surrounded  the 
walls  of  the  sanctuary  were  of  the  same  costly  material, 
and  a  broad  belt  or  frieze  of  gold  let  into  the  stone  work, 
encompassed  the  whole  exterior  of  the  edifice.  ”  1 

A  strange,  contradictory  people  indeed  were  these 
ancient  Peruvians  ;  a  people  of  a  high  and  yet  a  low  civili¬ 
zation  ;  a  nation  of  socialists  ruled  by  a  despot ;  a  nation 
with  palaces  and  temples  but  without  a  literature;  a 
nation  of  skillful  agriculturists  and  artificers  who  yet 
were  willing  to  pay  two -thirds  of  their  earnings  into  the 
coffers  of  the  state  and  church ;  a  nation  without  an 
alphabet  and  who  preserved  their  records  and  their 
accurate  census  returns  on  knotted  cords,  and  yet  who 
had  made  discoveries  in  metallurgy  and  mechanics  whose 
lost  secret  no  one  can  discover  to-day  ;  a  people  contented 
with  poverty  in  the  sight  of  luxury ;  who  were  willing  to 
drudge  for  their  Inca  and  defend  him  with  their  lives,  in 
return  for  a  poor  pittance  which  insured  them  against 
starvation  and  nakedness ;  a  people  always  willing  to 
work,  who  yet  asked  little  personal  return  for  their 
labours  ;  a  people  willing  to  be  lost  in  the  state  and  to  be 
effaced  individually  for  the  good  of  the  nation,  and  at  the 
will  of  the  emperor. 

How  different  is  the  dominant  nation  of  the  western 
hemisphere  to-day  !  There  individualism  prevails  and 
the  nation  is  the  slave  of  the  people.  There  the  people 
rule,  nominally  at  least,  and  the  rulers  are  their  servants. 
There  in  religion,  art,  business,  politics,  the  individual 
carves  out  his  own  destiny,  and  his  father’s  traditions  or 
his  ruler’s  wishes  have  very  little  to  do  with  the  matter. 

The  contrast  is  interesting  and  instructive,  and  the 
1  Prescott’s  “  Conquest  of  Peru.” 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  THE  INCAS 


75 


future  historian  may  teach  many  a  lesson,  and  draw  many 
a  moral  from  the  United  States  of  North  America,  as  we 
can  to-day  from  the  states  of  South  America  when  they 
were  united  under  the  rule  of  the  Incas. 


IX 


PERU,  YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY 


The  Bloody  History  of  Peru — The  Spanish  Conquest — The  Buie  of  the 
Inca  Emperors — Pizarro’s  Conquest— A  Room  Full  of  Gold— Pizar¬ 
ro’s  Perfidy— He  Quarrels  with  Almagro — The  Hard  Lot  of  the 
Peruvians — The  Benefits  of  the  Spanish  Occupation— Modern  Peru 
—Peru’s  Heroic  Figures— President  Castilla’s  Administration— The 
War  with  Chile — Heroic  Admiral  Grau — The  Provinces  Captured— 
Peru’s  Later  Prosperity. 


S  the  history  of  Pern  under  her  ancient  rulers, 


the  Incas,  is  the  most  interesting  of  any  South 


American  country,  so  modern  Peru,  since  the 


advent  of  the  Spaniards,  is  checkered  with  more  of  the 
lights  and  shadows  which  make  history  fascinating,  than 
any  of  the  other  modern  republics.  If  it  is  true  that 
“happy  is  that  country  that  makes  no  history,”  Peru  is 
indeed  a  most  unhappy  country,  for  almost  every  decade 
for  the  last  four  hundred  years  has  been  reddened  with 
bloody  history,  racked  by  revolutions,  made  detestable 
by  outrageous  oppression,  or  stained  by  almost  unbe¬ 
lievable  carnage. 

In  each  of  these  centuries  some  heroic  figures  have 
emerged  from  the  general  welter  and  chaos.  At  last  the 
country,  having  learned  in  the  hard  school  of  experience 
the  pathway  to  true  national  prosperity,  seems  to  be  pur¬ 
suing  it  with  even  tread. 

The  story  of  the  conquest  by  the  Spaniards,  though  ab¬ 
sorbing  in  its  interest,  has  been  told  too  often  to  be  dwelt 
upon  at  length  in  these  narrow  limits.  Everything,  at 
first,  seemed  to  conspire  to  make  it  possible  and  com¬ 
paratively  easy  for  the  Spaniards  to  conquer  and  overrun 
Peru  and  to  overthrow  the  ancient  dynasty  of  the  Incas. 


76 


PERU,  YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY 


77 


The  clock  of  the  Incas’  doom  had  struck.  Perhaps  the 
cup  of  their  iniquities  was  full,  and  Providence  requited 
them  for  their  cruelties  and  centuries  of  injustice,  by 
sending  upon  them  a  foe  more  cruel  and  unjust  than 
they. 

Authorities  differ,  to  be  sure,  as  to  the  character  of  the 
Inca  emperors,  but  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  they 
were  not  the  mild  and  benevolent  despots  they  are  some 
times  represented.  At  any  rate,  Atahuallpa,  the  Inca 
who  ruled  at  the  advent  of  Pizarro  into  New  World  poli¬ 
tics,  had  treated  his  brother  shamefully,  had  slain  tens 
of  thousands  of  his  enemies  in  his  lust  for  power,  and, 
for  years,  like  his  ancestors  before  him,  had  forced  enor¬ 
mous  tribute  from  the  common  people  who  were  prac¬ 
tically  all  his  slaves.  So  our  sympathy  for  the  last  of 
the  Incas  is  less  than  it  otherwise  would  be,  when  we 
read  how  Pizarro  trapped  him  in  one  of  his  own  cities, 
took  advantage  of  his  hospitality  to  capture  him  while 
he  was  offering  the  Spaniard  the  freedom  of  his  country 
and  the  food  and  succour  they  needed. 

That  was  a  decisive  moment  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
It  practically  gave  Spain  a  new  continent,  placed  in  her 
hands  the  balance  of  power,  and  altered  the  age-long 
civilization  of  South  America. 

Pizarro  always  knew  how  to  follow  up  his  victories. 
When  once  he  had  captured  the  emperor,  he  never  al¬ 
lowed  him  to  get  out  of  his  hands,  and  by  that  bold 
stroke  the  little  handful  of  Spaniards,  armed  with  the 
terrible  might  of  gunpowder,  had  conquered  a  nation  in 
spite  of  its  armies  and  its  wealth. 

Their  great  chief,  the  son  of  the  sun-god  captured,  the 
spirit  seemed  to  go  out  of  the  poor  Peruvians,  and  in  the 
scripture  phrase,  11  they  became  as  dead  men.”  Not  that 
there  were  not  battles  and  skirmishes  and  bloodshed  in¬ 
credible,  before  the  conquest  was  complete,  but  Pizarro’ s 


78  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


success  after  that  first  bold  stroke  of  capturing  the  person 
of  the  Inca,  never  seemed  to  be  in  doubt. 

Another  most  dramatic  incident,  and  one  that  showed 
the  dominant  motive  of  the  conquerors  in  a  lurid  light, 
was  the  offer  of  Atahuallpa,  who  evidently  knew  his  man, 
of  a  room  full  of  gold  for  his  release.  “I  will  fill  this 
room  with  gold  as  high  as  I  can  reach,  if  only  you  will 
liberate  me,”  was  his  piteous  plea.  Few  rulers  have  ever 
lived  who  could  fulfill  such  a  promise  or  furnish  such  a 
ransom,  but  Atahuallpa  was  one  of  the  few. 

The  room  was  seventeen  feet  long  by  twenty  wide,  and 
the  point  to  which  Pizarro  reached,  for  he  was  a  tall  man, 
was  nine  feet  from  the  floor.  Here  he  made  a  red  line  on 
the  wall,  and  held  his  captive  to  the  contract.  The 
country  was  ransacked  for  gold  in  every  direction.  The 
golden  plates  were  torn  from  the  beautiful  temple  of 
Cuzco,  of  which  I  have  already  told ;  golden  cups  and 
vases  and  shields  were  brought  in  from  every  quarter, 
until  at  last  the  great  room  was  filled,  and  treasure,  to 
the  value  of  $22,000,000  in  gold,  an  enormous  sum  to-day, 
but  representing  five  times  the  value  in  those  days  of 
cheap  products,  was  given  over  to  the  rapacious  Span¬ 
iards.  One-fifth  of  it  was  sent  to  the  royal  treasury,  the 
rest  was  divided  among  the  victors,  making  even  every 
common  soldier  rich. 

Then  came  one  of  the  crowning  acts  of  perfidy  in  the 
world’s  history.  Even  then,  when  Atahuallpa  had  lived 
up  religiously  to  his  part  of  the  bargain,  he  was  not  re¬ 
leased.  He  had  stripped  his  temples  and  palaces  in  vain, 
and  his  subjects  had  impoverished  themselves  for  naught, 
for,  after  a  mock  trial  on  a  trumped-up  charge  of  treason 
to  Spain,  the  great  Inca  was  slain,  and  the  dynasty  of  the 
Incas  was  at  an  end. 

But  they  who  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the  sword. 
This  proverb  was  never  more  fearfully  illustrated  than 


79 


PERU,  YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY 

by  the  story  of  Pizarro  and  his  comrades  in  arms,  few  of 
whom  died  natural  deaths.  Their  great  leader  himself, 
years  afterwards,  was  entrapped  very  much  as  he  had  en¬ 
trapped  the  Inca,  and  was  treacherously  slain  by  those  to 
whom  he  had  been  doing  a  kindness.  He  died  stabbed 
to  the  heart,  while  he  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  the 
floor  which  he  kissed,  murmuring  with  his  dying  breath 
the  name  of  “  Jesus.’ ’  A  vein  of  superstitious  religion 
ran  through  this  dominating  character,  aud  with  all  his 
vices  he  was  courageous,  resourceful,  not  unkindly  in  his 
natural  disposition,  and  as  true  to  his  friends  as  he  was 
savage,  treacherous  and  fierce  towards  his  enemies. 

For  nearly  three  hundred  years  after  the  death  of 
Atahuallpa,  the  story  of  Peru  is  the  story  of  quarrels 
among  the  Spanish  conquerors,  of  civil  strife,  of  battle 
and  bloodshed,  and  also  of  consistent  and  unremitting 
oppression  of  the  natives.  First,  Pizarro  and  his  great 
lieutenant,  Almagro,  fell  out  and  fought  for  the  su¬ 
premacy.  Pizarro  won,  as  usual,  and  Almagro  was  exe¬ 
cuted.  After  Pizarro’ s  death  his  brothers,  who  were 
scarcely  less  able,  and  no  less  brave  than  he,  took  up  his 
quarrels  and  continued  his  carnage. 

During  all  these  years  the  poor  Peruvians  were  ground 
between  the  upper  and  the  nether  millstones.  When  the 
Spaniards  came,  they  are  supposed  to  have  numbered 
some  forty  millions,  though  other  careful  authorities  re 
duce  that  estimate  one-half.  In  1575,  fifty  years  after 
Pizarro’ s  coming,  but  8,000,000  could  be  found  in  the 
land,  and  after  two  centuries  of  Spanish  rule  the  popula¬ 
tion  of  Peru  proper  had  fallen  to  1,500,000. 

Such  a  wholesale  decimation  of  a  people,  all  because  of 
the  cursed  greed  for  gold,  can  hardly  be  matched  in 
modern  or  ancient  times.  The  country  was  impoverished 
as  well  as  depopulated.  “  As  time  went  on,”  says  Daw¬ 
son,  “new  taxes  were  devised,  until  it  seemed  the  de- 


80  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


liberate  purpose  of  the  Spanish  government  to  transfer 
all  the  gold  and  silver  in  Peru’s  mountains  to  the  royal 
treasury.  Not  only  were  both  imports  and  exports 
taxed,  but  also  every  pound  of  provisions  sold  in  the 
markets  and  shops.  One-fifth  of  the  products  of  the 
mines  and  one-tenth  of  the  crops  went  directly  to  the 
Crown.  All  kinds  of  business  had  to  pay  licenses ; 
quicksilver  and  tobacco  were  monopolies ;  and  offices 
were  regularly  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.” 

A  pathetic  saying  is  recorded  of  one  of  the  Inca  chiefs 
who  had  maintained  a  precarious  independence  in  the 
wilderness,  when  he  was  called  upon  at  last,  after  a  fruit¬ 
less  resistance,  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  Spanish  crown. 
Lifting  the  gilded  fringe  of  the  table-cloth  on  which  he 
had  signed  the  document  renouncing  his  rights,  he  said  : 
“  All  this  cloth  and  its  fringe  were  mine,  and  now  they 
give  me  a  thread  of  it  for  my  sustenance  and  that  of  all 
my  house.” 

That  there  were  some  compensations  for  this  wholesale 
ravishment  of  life  and  liberty  cannot  be  denied  when 
we  consider  the  future  of  the  continent  as  a  whole.  It 
has  been  well  said:  “The  Spanish  occupation  brought 
many  incontestible  benefits  to  South  America.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  civilized  system  of  jurisprudence,  the  let¬ 
ters  and  the  religion  which  have  made  the  peoples  of  the 
continent  members  of  the  great  western  European  family, 
the  introduction  of  new  and  valuable  animals,  grains  and 
fruits,  raised  the  average  of  well-being  among  the  re¬ 
maining  inhabitants.  Horses,  asses,  cattle,  sheep,  goats, 
pigs,  chickens,  pigeons,  wheat,  barley,  oats,  rice,  olives, 
grapes,  oranges,  sugar-cane,  apples,  peaches,  and  even  the 
banana  and  cocoa-palm  were  introduced  by  the  Spaniards. 
In  return,  Europe  owes  to  Peru  maize,  potatoes,  choco¬ 
late,  tobacco,  cassava,  ipecacuanha  and  quinine.” 

The  introduction  of  the  last  named  drug  is  of  interest 


81 


PERU,  YESTERDAY  AND  TO-DAY 

to  every  man,  woman  and  child  who  has  had  to  taste 
its  bitter  virtues.  The  Countess  of  Chinchon,  the  wife  of 
the  viceroy  was,  like  Peter’s  wife’s  mother,  “sick  of  a 
fever.”  But  she  had  no  believing  apostle  to  take  her  by 
the  hand  and  raise  her  up.  Instead,  a  Jesuit  missionary 
from  the  mountain  wilds  of  southern  Ecuador  sent  her  a 
strange  kind  of  bark,  which,  when  administered,  quickly 
cured  the  viceroy’s  wife  of  her  fever,  and  when  Linneseus 
came  to  name  the  tree  which  produced  this  wonderful 
bark,  he  called  it  “chinchona,”  in  honour  of  the  viceroy 
whose  wife  it  had  cured. 

The  history  of  modern  Peru  begins  as  does  that  of  all 
the  other  South  American  republics,  except  Brazil,  with 
the  brief  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  dynasty  by  Napoleon 
in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century.  To  be  sure,  Peru 
being  the  principal  seat  of  Spanish  government  and 
Spanish  officials  in  the  new  world,  maintained  her  al¬ 
legiance  to  the  mother  country  longer  than  the  countries 
to  the  north,  but  the  same  ferment  was  working  all  over 
the  continent,  and  in  1824,  after  many  reverses  and 
partial  victories,  the  Spanish  power  was  finally  broken 
by  the  patriots  and  Peru  started  on  her  independent 
career. 

In  the  years  since,  some  heroic  figures  stand  out  in 
Peru’s  history  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  roll-call  of  the 
heroes  of  any  land.  San  Martin,  one  of  the  earliest  and 
ablest  generals  of  the  revolution,  seems  to  have  been  a 
true  man  and  a  genuine  patriot,  more  solicitous  for  his 
country’s  welfare  than  for  his  own.  He  was  an  Argen¬ 
tine  who  fought  the  battles  of  Peru,  but  when  Bolivar 
joined  him  with  his  victorious  forces  he  found  that  the 
“Liberator”  was  bound  not  so  much  to  free  Peru,  as  to 
become  himself  the  dictator  of  all  South  America. 

Desiring  no  part  or  lot  in  such  a  scheme  of  self-aggran¬ 
dizement,  San  Martin  returned  to  his  own  country,  leav- 


82  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


ing  Bolivar  and  General  Sucre,  another  exceedingly  able 
general,  to  finish  the  war  for  freedom.  On  the  9th  of 
September,  1824,  was  fought  the  battle  of  Ayacucho,  the 
decisive  struggle  which  gave  Peru  her  liberty.  ‘  ‘  Soldiers, 
on  your  deeds  this  day  depends  the  fate  of  South 
America,”  cried  Sucr6  on  that  eventful  morning,  and  the 
exclamation  was  no  empty  rhetoric,  declaimed  to  put 
heart  into  his  men.  Inspired  by  the  thought,  the  patriots 
fought  desperately,  the  Spaniards  were  utterly  defeated, 
the  viceroy  himself  was  wounded  and  made  a  prisoner, 
and  Spanish  power  was  forever  broken.  Callao  castle 
held  out  for  thirteen  months  longer,  and  “with  its  sur¬ 
render  was  hauled  down  the  last  Spanish  ensign  which 
floated  on  the  South  American  mainland.” 

In  the  later  history  of  Peru,  President  Castilla’s  admin¬ 
istration  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  successful. 
Castilla  rose  to  power  by  his  own  virtues  and  strength  of 
character  from  the  ranks  of  the  soldiery,  and  for  more 
than  twenty  years,  from  1844  to  1866,  was  a  power  in  the 
land.  He  has  been  called  the  Porfirio  Diaz  of  Peru,  and 
he  seems  to  have  dealt  justly  and  loved  mercy,  and,  as 
we  may  hope,  walked  humbly  before  his  God.  At  any 
rate,  Providence,  in  his  day,  threw  untold  riches  in  the 
lap  of  Peru,  for  the  guano  and  nitrate  beds  were  discov¬ 
ered,  or  at  least  became  important  faetors  in  the  world’s 
commerce.  Castilla  used  the  vast  wealth  which  flowed 
from  these  deposits  wisely  in  paying  the  interest  on  the 
national  debt,  and  increasing  the  credit  of  his  country, 
instead  of  squandering  it  on  a  swarm  of  useless  office 
holders,  and  it  looked  as  though  Peru  had  started  on  a 
career  of  unbroken  prosperity. 

But  alas  !  the  same  causes  which  brought  her  prosperity 
well  nigh  compassed  her  ruin.  Prosperity  gave  rise  to 
speculation,  and  reckless  expenditure,  as  it  too  often  has 
done  in  our  own  country,  and  when  the  firm,  wise  hand 


PEEU,  YESTEEDAY  AND  TO-DAY 


83 


of  Castilla  was  removed,  no  one  else  was  found  who  could 
guide  the  ship  of  state  with  equal  skill.  The  foreign 
debt  was  increased  most  recklessly,  from  $25,000,000  to 
$250,000,000,  until  two-thirds  of  the  gross  revenues  of  the 
country  could  hardly  pay  the  interest  on  it. 

The  struggle  with  bankruptcy  continued  for  years,  and 
to  add  to  the  woes  of  Peru,  Chile  cast  a  covetous  eye  upon 
the  nitrate  beds  and  guano  islands,  which  had  become 
the  chief  source  of  Peru7s  wealth,  and  resolved  to  have 
them  or  at  least  some  of  them,  for  her  own.  She  set  up  a 
claim  to  the  southern  portion  of  the  nitrate  beds  which 
had  always  been  claimed  by  Bolivia.  The  Bolivians 
were  unable  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the  vigorous 
and  aggressive  Chileans,  and,  in  trying  to  defend  her 
rights,  drew  Peru  into  the  conflict,  which  she  was  the 
more  willing  to  enter,  as  her  own  vast  nitrate  deposits 
were  in  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  Chile. 

The  war  proved  disastrous  to  both  the  allies,  for  Bolivia 
lost  all  her  coast  line,  and  Peru  was  humiliated  and  im¬ 
poverished,  and  victorious  Chile  dictated  her  hard  terms 
of  peace  in  Lima  itself.  The  command  of  the  sea  gave 
the  conquering  nation  the  key  to  the  situation.  It  could 
hardly  be  otherwise  on  such  a  barren  and  inaccessible 
coast  as  that  of  Peru,  where  garrisons  and  cities  could 
easily  be  cut  off  from  the  source  of  supplies.  Peru’s  re¬ 
sources  had  been  exhausted  in  her  mad  speculations,  and 
she  could  not  buy  the  necessary  ironclads  to  meet  Chile’s 
small  but  formidable  navy. 

At  first  the  fortunes  of  war  were  not  so  uneven.  Peru’ s 
sailors  and  soldiers  were  equally  brave  as  those  of  her 
enemy,  and  in  Admiral  Grau  she  had  the  greatest  naval 
commander  whom  the  war  developed.  Like  two  op¬ 
ponents  at  checkers,  each  of  the  contending  nations  had 
two  good  ironclads  j — two  men  in  the  king  row.  One  of 
Peru’s  u  kings,”  the  In&eyendencia ,  ran  upon  a  rock  and 


84  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


was  lost  early  in  the  war.  This  was  the  beginning  of 
Peru’s  final  defeat.  But  Admiral  Grau,  with  his  re¬ 
maining  ironclad,  the  famous  Huascar ,  performed  prod¬ 
igies  of  valour,  inflicted  great  losses  upon  the  enemy,  un¬ 
til,  at  last,  his  gallant  ship  was  caught  between  two  of  the 
Chilean  squadrons,  and  cut  to  pieces,  while  the  admiral 
himself  was  blown  into  fragments  by  a  shell  while  bravely 
directing  the  fight  in  the  conning  tower. 

This  practically  decided  the  war,  though  Peru  kept  up 
the  hopeless  struggle  for  many  months.  At  last  the 
Chileans  entered  Lima  with  their  victorious  army,  com¬ 
pelled  the  Peruvians  to  pay  a  large  indemnity,  to  give 
up  half  their  guano  islands  and  a  large  section  of  their 
nitrate  provinces,  with  the  provision  that  the  provinces  of 
Tacna  and  Arica  were  to  be  held  by  Chile  for  ten  years, 
and  at  the  end  of  that  time  a  popular  vote  would  decide 
who  should  retain  them,  the  losing  country  to  receive 
$10,000,000  from  the  other.  The  ten  years’  lease  ex¬ 
pired  long  ago,  but  the  question  is  still  in  dispute,  and 
likely  to  be  for  years  to  come,  until  settled  perhaps  by 
another  war. 

Since  the  war  with  Chile,  Peru  has  passed  through  one 
frightful  civil  war  in  1895,  but  for  ten  years  now  she  has 
been  at  peace,  and  has  been  regathering  and  husbanding 
her  dissipated  resources.  Though  her  debts  have  been 
largely  repudiated  or  scaled  down,  her  finances  have  been 
put  on  a  sound  footing,  her  currency  placed  on  a  gold 
basis,  her  vast  resources  which  can  never  be  wholly 
alienated  while  her  ancient  territory  remains,  are  being 
developed  and  her  railroads  pushed  farther  and  farther 
into  the  rich  interior.  Take  it  all  in  all,  the  sun  of 
prosperity  is  shining  upon  the  ancient  land  of  the  Incas 
as  it  has  not  for  many  a  year,  and  we  may  hope  that  the 
twentieth  century,  begun  so  auspiciously,  will  be  the  best 
that  Peru  in  all  her  varied  history,  has  ever  known. 


X 

PERU  REDIVIVUS 


The  Marvellous  Recovery  of  the  Great  Inca  State 

k  Nation  that  is  Hard  to  Kill — The  Secret  of  Peru’s  Recovery — Her 
Great  Resources — Her  Delightful  Climate — The  Antarctic  Current 
and  its  Benefits— What  Lies  Behind  the  Coast  Desert — Secretary 
Root’s  Yisit — A  Peruvian  Statesman’s  Speech — The  Friendship  of  the 
United  States  and  Peru — The  Incident  of  the  Lobos  Islands — Lima, 
the  Beautiful  Capital  of  Peru — The  Bones  of  Pizarro. 


OME  men  do  not  know  when  they  are  beaten,  and 


this  is  the  secret  of  their  ultimate  success.  Some 


nations  are  equally  hard  to  kill,  whatever  their 
reverses  and  vicissitudes.  Peru  is  one  of  these  nations. 
She  has  had  enough  tribulation  during  the  last  four  hun¬ 
dred  years  to  blot  out  half  a  dozen  ordinary  nations,  but 
she  maintains  her  independence,  and  largely  her  ter¬ 
ritorial  integrity,  and  is  to-day  entering  upon  a  period  of 
stable  prosperity,  unsurpassed  in  her  history. 

Her  Inca  emperors  were  captured  and  treacherously 
killed  by  the  Spaniards  and  her  old  civilization  blotted 
out.  Her  temples  were  desecrated,  her  palaces  despoiled, 
her  public  buildings  were  stripped  of  their  gold  and 
silver  and  jewels  by  the  rapacious  conquerors,  her  splen¬ 
did  roads  were  allowed  to  fall  into  disrepair  and  become 
impassable. 

Then  the  Spaniards,  in  their  turn,  were  dispossessed, 
eighty  years  ago,  the  country  was  again  deluged  in  blood, 
business  came  to  a  standstill,  and  the  struggle  for  liberty 
was  long  and  exhausting.  Eevolution  succeeded  revolu¬ 
tion,  each  time  seemingly  almost  destroying  the  country 
when  on  the  eve  of  a  national  revival. 


85 


86  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Then  the  Chileans  sunk  the  Peruvian  navy,  as  we  have 
said,  sacked  and  burned  her  cities,  wrenched  from  her 
two  of  her  valuable  states,  Arica  and  Tacna,  and  robbed 
her  of  her  nitrate  beds  and  Guano  Islands,  her  chief 
sources  of  wealth. 

From  this  great  blow  of  the  70’s  she  was  recovering, 
when  the  bloody  revolution  of  1895  broke  out,  and  once 
more  plunged  the  country  in  civil  wars. 

But  again  she  is  on  the  high  road  to  recovery  and 
national  vigour  and  health.  Her  credit  is  restored,  her 
currency  is  on  a  substantial  gold  basis,  gold  and  silver 
and  copper  coins  are  the  only  circulating  mediums  ;  rail¬ 
roads  are  being  pushed  from  the  seacoast  up  into  the 
rich  interior  at  half  a  dozen  different  ports,  Payta,  Eten, 
Pacasmayo,  Mollendo,  and  other  places,  as  well  as  from 
Lima,  American  capital  is  pouring  in,  together  with 
American  engineers  and  American  machinery ;  Peru’s 
inexhaustible  copper  and  silver  mines  are  being  de¬ 
veloped  ;  her  rubber  forests  are  being  explored ;  her 
cotton,  sugar  and  coffee  are  furnishing  new  revenues ; 
her  capital,  Lima,  is  being  repaired,  repaved  and 
beautified,  and,  all  things  considered,  there  is  not  a  more 
prosperous  country  in  South  America  than  this  ancient 
empire  of  the  Incas. 

The  secret  of  Peru  redivivus  is  a  country  of  vast  natural 
resources,  an  admirably  healthy  climate,  an  industrious 
and  patriotic  people,  who  never  admit  final  defeat  or  are 
disheartened  by  any  temporary  trouble. 

The  climate  of  Peru  is  a  great  surprise  to  many  travel¬ 
lers,  and  most  stay-at-homers,  who  are  inclined  to  think 
of  it  as  a  hot,  steamy  country  lying  just  under  the 
Equator.  Just  under  the  Equator  Peru  does  lie,  but  it 
is  neither  steamy  nor  unbearably  hot,  even  in  mid¬ 
summer.  February  found  us  in  Peru,  and  February  is 
considered  the  hottest  summer  month  in  this  country, 


PERU  REDIYIYUS 


87 


but  I  have  suffered  far  more  in  New  York  or  Boston  in 
August  than  in  the  corresponding  month  in  Lima.  The 
middle  of  the  day  is  hot,  but  not  unbearable ;  the  nights, 
the  evenings  and  mornings  are  delightful,  a  good  breeze 
blowing  most  of  the  time,  day  and  night.  Sunstrokes 
are  unknown  in  Peru,  and  the  dog  has  no  day  he  calls 
his  own  in  this  land.  While  this  is  true  on  the  coast,  it 
is  doubly  true  on  the  high  table-lands  which  constitute  a 
large  portion  of  Peru,  where  heavy  wraps  and  warm  rugs 
and  blankets  are  wanted  even  in  midsummer. 

The  reason  for  this  excellent  climate  lies  not  only  in 
the  high  altitude  of  the  plateaux,  but  equally  in  the  cold, 
antarctic  current,  a  great  ocean  river,  which  flows  up  the 
whole  length  of  Peruvian  coast  from  the  antarctic  seas. 
This  ocean  current  does  exactly  the  reverse  for  the  shores 
of  South  America  of  what  the  Gulf  Stream  does  for 
Great  Britain  and  Scandinavia.  That  stream  warms  the 
cold  countries,  this  stream  cools  the  hot  countries. 

One  has  a  tangible  evidence  of  this  when  he  jumps  into 
his  bath  on  the  first  morning  after  leaving  the  coast  of 
Ecuador.  If  he  is  not  prepared  for  the  change,  he  is 
likely  to  jump  out  again  with  a  shiver,  for  the  water  is  at 
least  twenty  degrees  colder  than  the  day  before.  He  is 
only  five  degrees  south  of  the  Equator,  but  the  water  in 
the  bath-tub  makes  him  think  he  is  off  the  coast  of  Maine 
or  at  least  on  the  north  side  of  Cape  Cod. 

The  boon  which  this  antarctic  stream  is  to  the  dwellers 
on  the  Peruvian  or  Chilean  coast  of  South  America,  it  is 
hard  to  realize  and  impossible  to  exaggerate.  The  nights 
are  cool,  the  days  are  comfortable,  sleep  is  refreshing,  the 
appetite  revives,  yellow  fever  is  unknown  of  late  years, 
and  the  general  health  of  the  people  is  excellent.  Doubt¬ 
less  much  of  the  vigour,  energy  and  irrepressible  spirit 
of  these  people  under  difficulties  is  due  to  this  beneficent 
river  of  the  ocean. 


88  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


But  a  climate,  however  good,  and  people  however 
energetic,  cannot  make  a  nation  great,  that  has  not  the 
natural  resources  out  of  which  prosperity  grows.  But 
Peru  has  this  third  element  of  national  prosperity  abun¬ 
dantly.  As  one  sails  along  the  barren  shores,  from  the 
edge  of  Ecuador  to  the  northern  boundary  of  Chile,  one 
asks  himself  if  even  a  condor  can  live  on  these  bare  moun¬ 
tains,  and  on  this  inhospitable,  sand-swept  coast  1  For  a 
thousand  miles  the  coast  of  Peru  presents  this  bold, 
grand,  but  unspeakably  barren  appearance.  Magnificent 
mountains  tower  up  towards  the  cloudless  skies  day  after 
day  as  one  pursues  his  slow  way  down  the  coast.  Not  a 
tree  or  a  green  bush  can  be  descried  ;  but  an  oasis  appar¬ 
ently  in  the  interminable  desert.  What  must  Pizarro 
and  Almagro  and  the  early  explorers  have  thought  as 
they  sought  for  a  foothold  in  this  new  Eldorado  ?  Noth¬ 
ing  more  utterly  discouraging  can  well  be  imagined  than 
these  desert  mountains. 

But  just  behind  them  lay  the  wealth  of  the  Incas,  gold 
and  silver  incalculable,  coffee  and  cotton  and  spices  and 
fruits  and  precious  woods.  So  to-day  the  coast  line  pre¬ 
sents  the  same  forbidding  aspect,  but  this  is  only  the 
desert  fringe  on  the  rich  coverlet  which  overspreads 
Peru.  Nowhere  does  the  desert  run  back  for  more  than 
eighty  miles  from  the  coast,  and  usually  not  so  far. 
Even  near  the  shore  are  river  valleys  which  are  wonder¬ 
fully  fertile,  and,  wherever  water  touches  the  soil  in  this 
rainless  region,  vegetation  springs  up  with  amazing 
rapidity,  and  the  desert  is  transformed  into  the  garden  of 
the  gods. 

Then  there  is  that  long  stretch  of  gradually  rising 
plains,  the  foot-hills  and  then  the  great  interior  table¬ 
lands  with  their  incalculable  riches.  When  we  see  in  our 
mind’s  eye  the  real  Peru  and  forget  the  dry  and  barren 
edge,  we  do  not  wonder  at  its  recovery  from  the  depths 


PERU  REDIYIYUS 


89 


of  the  political  and  financial  pit  into  which  it  has  so  often 
fallen. 

On  the  occasion  of  Secretary  Root’s  recent  visit  to 
Peru,  the  national  assembly  of  commerce  made  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  visitor  an  honorary  member  of  their  body, 
and,  in  the  course  of  the  ceremony,  Rev.  Mr.  Watson, 
a  Scotch  missionary  in  Lima,  who  was  one  of  the  speak¬ 
ers,  well  summarized  the  recent  progress  of  Peru  in  the 
following  words : 

“The  present  government  of  Peru  is  characterized  by 
its  eagerness  to  know  the  resources  of  its  territory,  so  as 
to  utilize  them  to  the  greatest  advantage.  This  tendency 
is  evident  in  the  sending  forth  of  technical  commissions 
which  are  constantly  employed.  Now  it  is  manifested  in 
exploring  the  important  mining  centres,  such  as  Cerro- 
de-Pasco,  Huallanca  and  lea ;  the  petroleum  fields  of 
Tumbez,  Payta  and  Piura ;  the  magnetic  iron  districts 
of  Aija ;  the  gold  fields  of  Sandia  and  Carabaya,  the 
borax  fields  of  Azangaro,  etc.  .  .  .  Studies  have 

been  made  in  the  vineyard  districts  of  Chincha  and  Mo- 
quegua,  the  sugar-cane  regions  of  Chicama,  the  agricul¬ 
ture  of  Piura.  .  .  .  Irrigation  works  have  been  ini¬ 
tiated  in  almost  all  parts  of  the  Republic.  .  .  . 

Schools  of  agriculture  and  schools  of  arts  and  trades  have 
been  subsidized  in  various  capitals  of  departments,  and 
Peruvian  professional  men  have  been  sent  abroad  at  the 
expense  of  the  state  to  complete  their  education.” 

These  sentences  on  this  important  occasion,  from  an 
educated  and  unprejudiced  foreigner,  put  in  succinct 
form  the  wonderful  advance  made  by  Peru  during  the 
last  decade,  and  the  further  progress  for  which  she  is  so 
evidently  planning. 

No  event  in  the  recent  history  of  Peru  has  made  such 
a  deep  impression  or  been  attended  with  such  happy 
results  as  this  visit  of  Mr.  Root.  He  was  received  with  a 


90  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


generous  and  spontaneous  cordiality  which  perhaps  has 
never  been  accorded  to  any  other  foreigner.  From  his 
first  minute  on  Peruvian  soil,  to  his  last,  his  stay  was  one 
continuous  ovation.  The  officials  and  the  people  vied 
with  each  other  to  do  him  honour.  A  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  it  is  said,  were  spent  in  Callao  and  Lima  in  dec¬ 
orations  and  banquets  in  his  honour,  and  the  people  did 
not  begrudge  the  outlay. 

Through  it  all,  Mr.  Root  bore  himself  with  admirable 
modesty,  tact  and  geniality,  and  endeared  himself  and 
the  American  nation  to  this  as  well  as  the  other  republics 
which  he  visited.  In  every  one  of  his  numerous  speeches 
which  have  been  published  in  a  volume,  together  with 
the  addresses  of  the  Peruvians,  he  spoke  with  freshness 
and  vigour,  and,  while  always  cordial,  never  “slopped 
over.” 

The  same  cannot  be  said  perhaps  for  all  the  addresses 
which  Mr.  Root  received  from  enthusiastic  Peruvians. 
Said  one  distinguished  statesman,  whose  address  is  pub¬ 
lished  in  this  volume : 

“I  consider  your  visit  to  those  youthful  republics,  as 
one  of  the  acts  of  most  transcendency  and  of  most  histor¬ 
ical  resonance  that  have  been  realized  on  this  continent. 
When  nations  have  attained  to  the  power  and  develop¬ 
ment  which  to-day  the  United  States  exhibits  ;  when  the 
citizens  and  the  public  power  keep  within  that  impassa¬ 
ble  limit  laid  down  by  the  legitimate  desire  of  Liberty 
and  Justice  and  by  the  imprescriptible  (?)  necessities  of 
Order  and  Progress  ;  when  all  this  is  obtained  in  the 
midst  of  social  well-being,  of  the  commercial  strength 
and  of  political  predominance  which  overpasses  the 
limits  of  the  national  soil  ;  then  the  legitimate  and  noble 
influence  which  is  exercised  in  the  life  of  other  nations  is 
founded  not  upon  the  narrow  combinations  of  national 
egotism,  but  on  the  expansion  and  humane  virtue  of  civ- 


PERU  REDIVIVUS 


91 


ilization.  And  your  government  has  comprehended  this, 
on  giving  you  ample  representation  to  these  republics  in 
harmony  with  the  American  ideal  of  union  and  progress, 
which  the  illustrious  statesman,  who,  to  the  admiration 
and  respect  of  all,  presides  to-day  over  the  glorious 
destiny  of  the  American  nation,  propagates  and  carries 
out  in  his  words  as  a  thinker  and  in  his  acts  as  a  man¬ 
datory  !  ” 

Let  us  hope  that  the  words  of  this  statesman  suffered  in 
their  translation  from  Spanish  to  English,  where  they 
evidently  gained  in  hifalutin  spreadeagleism  what  they 
lost  in  sense.  Most  of  the  Peruvian  addresses,  however, 
were  models  of  good  sense  as  well  as  of  brotherly  cor¬ 
diality. 

The  United  States  is  evidently  in  high  favour  in  Peru, 
for  American  capital  and  American  men  are  helping  to 
make  the  newer  and  better  Peru  in  no  small  meas¬ 
ure. 

But  the  United  States  and  Peru  are  old  friends  and 
allies.  Peru  has  never  forgotten  how,  in  1852,  when 
some  Americans  claimed  the  Lobos  guano  islands  off  her 
coasts,  and  the  United  States  was  about  to  enforce  these 
claims  with  her  gunboats,  she  paused  long  enough  to  look 
into  the  matter.  This  convinced  our  country  that  Peru 
was  in  the  right,  and  our  countrymen  in  the  wrong ; 
whereupon  she  recognized  the  absolute  sovereignty  of 
Peru  over  these  islands.  This  act  of  justice  was  referred 
to  more  than  once  during  the  Root  meetings,  and  in  his 
reply  to  one  minister  of  state  Mr.  Root  said  : 

“You  were  kind  enough  to  refer  to  an  incident  in  the 
diplomatic  history  of  the  United  States  and  Peru,  when 
my  own  country  recognized  its  error  in  regard  to  the 
Lobos  Islands  and  returned  them  freely  and  cheerfully  to 
their  rightful  owner.  I  would  rather  have  the  record  of 
that  act  of  justice  for  my  country’s  fair  name  than  the 


92  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


story  of  any  battle  fought  and  won  by  her  military 
horoes.” 

Surely  it  is  worth  while  for  a  nation  as  for  an  indi¬ 
vidual  to  deal  justly  and  to  love  mercy.  After  more 
than  fifty  years,  the  bread  that  we  cast  upon  the  diplo¬ 
matic  waters  in  the  Lobos  incident,  has  returned  to  us, 
and  has  cemented  the  friendship  of  one  of  the  finest  and 
most  progressive  republics  of  South  America. 

Our  “  Mandatory,”  President  Roosevelt,  like  his  coun¬ 
try,  is  immensely  popular  in  Peru.  When  I  mentioned 
his  name  to  one  of  the  high  officials,  he  threw  out  his 
chest,  and  drew  in  his  breath,  and  exclaimed,  “  He  is  the 
greatest  man  in  all  the  Americas.  One  of  the  greatest 
America  ever  produced.” 

Over  and  over  again  such  sentiments  as  the  following, 
by  a  distinguished  Peruvian,  have  been  reechoed  of  late  : 

“The  purpose  of  our  powerful  Sister  of  the  North  is  a 
noble  one,  that  of  a  persevering  and  ever  steadfast  en¬ 
deavour  to  combine  continental  interests  lacking  a  suffi¬ 
cient  cohesion,  and  promote  their  common  development, 
thus  managing  to  completely  replace  the  dictates  of  force 
and  war  among  nations,  by  those  of  peace  and  justice.” 

Lima,  all  things  considered,  is  a  beautiful  city.  Built 
largely  of  adobe  bricks  and  bamboo  laths  covered  with 
mud,  that  a  long,  drenching  rain  (which  fortunately 
never  comes)  would  dissolve  in  a  week,  it  yet  presents 
the  appearance  of  a  substantial,  permanent  metropolis, 
as  indeed  it  is.  A  good  American  tramway  system  sup¬ 
plies  Lima’s  needs,  and  connects  her  with  her  port, 
Callao,  in  twenty  minutes.  Good  water,  good  light  and 
good  sewerage  make  a  safe  and  healthy  city,  while  her 
beautiful  plazas,  fine  public  buildings,  and  streets  which 
are  beginning  to  be  well-paved,  make  the  capital  of  Peru 
one  of  the  most  attractive  cities  that  lie  beneath  the 
Southern  Cross. 


PERU  REDIYIYUS 


93 


In  the  great  and  beautiful  cathedral  of  Lima  lie  the 
bones  of  that  brilliant  but  dastardly  adventurer  and  con¬ 
queror,  Francisco  Pizarro.  As  I  looked  at  his  shrunken 
limbs  and  his  grinning  skull,  I  could  almost  forgive  his 
cruelty  and  his  treachery,  for  his  part  in  discovering 
to  the  old  world  this  magnificent  country  of  the  new 
world,  and  for  rescuing  from  Inca  tyranny  and  absolu¬ 
tism  this  fair  republic  of  Peru,  which  has  had  such  a 
checkered  past,  but  will  have,  I  believe,  such  a  glorious 
future. 


XI 

LIMA,  THE  PARIS  OF  THE  SOUTH 


The  City  on  the  Rimac  and  the  City  on  the  Seine— History,  Climate, 
Scenery— Lottery  Tickets  on  the  Tram  Cars — Butter  Making  on 
Horseback— Ice  Cream  Venders— The  Delicious  Fruits  of  Peru— The 
Great  Cathedral— The  National  Library— Relics  of  the  Inca  Regime 
—From  the  Library  to  the  Prison— Lima’s  Place  Among  the  World’s 
Capitals. 

NOT  without  reason  has  Lima,  the  capital  of 
Peru,  been  called  the  Paris  of  South  America. 
Brightness,  gayety,  fine  costumes,  stylish 
women  and  gallant  men,  extensive  shops  displaying  rich 
goods  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  popular  caf6s,  historic 
churches, — all  these  characteristics  of  Paris  the  Great  you 
find  on  a  smaller  scale  in  this  Paris  of  the  Andes. 

The  Paris  on  the  Rimac,  too,  is  a  historic  city  as  well  as 
the  Paris  on  the  Seine.  It  has  been  besieged  and  sacked. 
It  has  seen  revolution  and  counter-revolution ;  it  has 
conquered  and  been  conquered  ;  and  it  has  come  out  of 
every  tribulation  still  vigorous  and  often  stronger,  richer, 
and  more  prosperous  than  ever. 

Of  course  the  comparison  must  not  be  pushed  too  far, 
for  there  are  plenty  of  contrasts,  if  we  look  for  them,  as 
well  as  resemblances  between  the  Paris  that  lies  north  of 
the  equator  and  the  smaller  edition  that  lies  south. 

In  the  matter  of  climate  I  should  prefer  the  Peruvian 
Paris.  It  is  never  very  hot  and  never  cold.  The  Hum¬ 
boldt  current  in  the  Pacific  tempers  and  cools  the  air,  and 
even  in  midsummer  (January  and  February  in  Peru)  the 
weather  is  not  oppressive,  while  sunstrokes  are  unknown. 

In  grandeur  of  scenery  and  natural  surroundings  the 
South  American  capital  is  incomparably  superior.  The 

94 


LIMA,  THE  PAEIS  OF  THE  SOUTH 


95 


rushing  Bimac,  though  smaller,  is  a  far  more  beautiful 
river  than  the  Seine ;  and  the  majestic  Andes  stand 
guard  round  about  Lima  as  few  cities  in  the  world  are 
sentinelled. 

But  enough  of  comparisons.  There  are  plenty  of 
matters  of  present  interest  to  fascinate  us. 

Callao  (pronounced  Calyao),  the  port  of  Lima,  is  seven 
miles  distant,  and  is  connected  with  the  capital  by  one  of  the 
best  electric  roads  in  the  world.  This  road  is  of  Ameri¬ 
can  (United  States)  construction  throughout,  the  equip¬ 
ment  coming  from  Philadelphia  ;  and  the  express- cars  go 
whizzing  along  past  the  Inca  ruins  five  centuries  old,  and 
past  modern  gardens  and  villas,  at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles 
an  hour. 

On  reaching  Lima  one  is  apt  to  think  that  buying  and 
selling  lottery-tickets  is  the  chief  business  of  the  in¬ 
habitants.  At  every  street-corner  these  tickets  are  thrust 
into  your  face.  Old  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls, 
cripples,  blind  men,  and  waifs  and  strays  of  all  sorts, 
importune  you  to  buy  their  yellow  slips,  with  the  fas¬ 
cinating  numbers  that  may  yield  a  fortune,  but  in  all 
probability  (a  thousand  chances  to  one,  at  least)  will 
yield  only  experience  and  no  cash. 

The  state  authorizes  the  lottery ;  the  Catholic  Church 
even  sanctions  it  and  profits  by  it ;  and  the  grand  draw¬ 
ings  are  great  and,  it  would  seem  to  the  northerner, 
demoralizing  events  in  Lima.  Even  some  of  the  electric- 
car  companies  issue  lottery -tickets  instead  of  checks  as  a 
prevention  of  fraud  on  the  part  of  the  conductors.  The 
people  will  demand  these  tickets  on  the  chance  of  draw¬ 
ing  a  prize  in  the  tramway  company’s  lottery,  and  so 
these  will  serve  as  a  check  on  the  number  of  fares  re¬ 
ceived. 

My  friends  accused  me,  jocosely,  of  buying  a  lottery- 
ticket  during  my  very  first  hour  in  Lima;  and,  sure 


96  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


enough,  I  did  ;  for  on  paying  a  car-fare  of  two  and  a  half 
cents  I  was  presented  with  a  slip  of  paper  that  informed 
me  in  Spanish  that  it  was  a  lottery-ticket,  and  must  be 
preserved  entire. 

A  thousand  things  odd  and  interesting  to  unaccustomed 
eyes  greet  one  at  every  turn  in  Lima — the  milk-women 
sitting  astride  their  horses,  with  big  cans  on  either  side, 
from  which  they  deal  out  the  lacteal  fluid.  One  would 
think,  as  they  go  jogging  along  over  the  rough  pavements, 
that  their  cream  would  soon  become  butter,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  need  of  a  churn.  Indeed,  I  have  heard 
it  said  that,  when  a  customer  demands  butter  instead  of 
milk,  if  it  has  not  quite  “come,”  the  milk- woman  will 
reply,  “I  will  take  another  turn  around  the  square,  and 
then  the  butter  will  be  ready.”  However,  I  will  not 
vouch  for  this  alleged  Peruvian  method  of  butter¬ 
making. 

The  bakers  mounted  on  their  steeds  with  great  panniers 
of  bread  on  either  side  are  equally  picturesque,  and  so 
are  the  ice  cream  men  carrying  a  freezer  with  its  cooling 
contents  on  their  heads.  Ice  is  a  prime  luxury  anywhere 
within  twenty  degrees  of  the  equator,  and  one  often  sees 
ice-dealers  at  the  street  stalls  shaving  a  block  of  ice  with 
an  instrument  that  looks  like  a  carpenter’s  plane.  When 
shaved,  this  snowlike  product  is  packed  into  a  glass,  and 
then  drenched  with  syrup  to  the  taste  of  the  customer, 
usually  a  small  boy  or  girl,  to  whom  this  cooling  confec¬ 
tion  is  a  great  delicacy. 

The  fruit-stands  of  Lima  in  February  are  tempting  in 
the  extreme.  Delicious  grapes  of  every  colour,  ripe  figs, 
oranges  and  bananas  of  course,  peaches  with  their  rosy 
cheeks,  pomegranates  cracked  open  so  as  to  show  their 
ruby  seeds,  and  many  varieties  of  fruit  one  never  sees  in 
a  northern  market.  The  pawpaws  are  excellent  and 
wholesome  j  the  custard-apples,  in  spite  of  their  rough 


LIMA,  THE  PARIS  OF  THE  SOUTH 


97 


and  spiny  exterior,  are  sweet  and  delicious  ;  the  grena- 
dilla,  or  passion-flower  fruit,  has  a  delicate  flavour  of  its 
own,  while  perhaps  the  most  delicious  fruit  of  all  is  the 
avocado  pear,  which  is  not  a  pear  at  all,  but  more  like  a 
melon  with  a  hard,  round  seed  at  the  core.  It  is  eaten 
with  vinegar,  salt,  and  pepper,  and  for  a  breakfast  fruit 
is  not  easily  surpassed. 

But  we  must  not  linger  at  every  strange  and  interesting 
spot,  or  we  shall  not  get  far  into  this  Paris  of  the  New 
World.  As  we  approach  the  central  plaza,  we  find  stores 
that  would  do  credit  to  New  York  or  London,  large  dry 
goods  establishments,  extensive  jewelry  stores,  book  and 
music  and  photograph  shops  of  no  small  pretensions. 

The  Cathedral  plaza  is  really  the  centre  of  Lima,  more 
than  any  other  one  spot.  On  one  side  is  the  truly  im¬ 
posing  Cathedral  with  its  twin  towers  and  its  vast  fa§ade ; 
at  the  right  is  the  enormous  palace,  occupying  a  whole 
square,  and  containing  not  only  the  President’s  apart¬ 
ments,  but  the  offices  of  other  government  departments  as 
well. 

Fine  stores,  fronted  by  arcades,  like  the  rue  de  Rivoli 
in  Paris,  or  the  shops  of  Berne  and  Bologna,  occupy  the 
other  two  sides  of  the  plaza,  which  is  full  of  gay  flowers, 
palms,  and  tropical  trees,  and  is  brightly  lighted  with 
strings  of  electric  lamps  at  night.  Altogether  it  is  a 
most  attractive  centre,  and  from  it  radiate  busy  streets  in 
every  direction. 

The  Cathedral  is  well  worth  a  visit.  It  is  imposing 
from  its  size  and  from  the  great  height  and  width  of  its 
central  aisle  and  naves.  The  recent  decorations  are  in 
good  taste  and  not  over-gaudy,  and  a  Protestant  finds  less 
in  the  nature  of  image-worship  and  Mariolatry  to  offend 
him  here  than  in  most  Catholic  churches. 

The  national  library  is  another  interesting  spot  to  visit. 
It  contains  about  fifty  thousand  volumes,  many  of  them 


98  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


most  valuable  storehouses  of  South  American  lore.  In 
the  Chilean  war  of  1879  the  library  lost  many  of  its 
most  valuable  treasures,  the  Chileans  looting  it  in  a 
shameless  fashion,  and  even  tearing  up  and  throwing  out 
of  the  windows  precious  manuscripts  whose  priceless 
value  they  could  not  appreciate. 

The  chief  librarian,  the  learned  Dr.  Richard  Palma, 
whose  works  are  known  far  beyond  Peru,  kindly  showed 
us  over  the  library.  A  long  row  of  books  in  uni¬ 
form  bindings,  comprising  several  hundred  volumes,  he 
pointed  out  with  especial  interest  as  a  gift  from  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  of  Washington,  “The  most  valu¬ 
able  gift  the  library  has  ever  had,”  he  assured  us. 

The  Peruvian  Geographical  Society  has  rooms  in  the 
same  building,  one  of  which  is  devoted  to  rare  pottery 
and  relics  of  Inca  and  pre-Inca  times. 

Three  or  four  civilizations  undoubtedly  antedated  the 
Inca  regime ,  and  I  was  especially  interested  in  one  beauti¬ 
ful  bowl,  which  was  probably  five  hundred  years  older 
than  Atahuallpa,  the  Inca  emperor  whom  Pizarro  found 
upon  the  throne  and  whom  he  so  treacherously  killed. 
The  most  curious  thing  about  this  bowl  is  that  it  has 
as  its  chief  ornamental  design  the  Chinese  character  for 
“heaven,”  showing  conclusively,  together  with  other 
proofs,  so  the  archaeologists  think,  that  Peru  in  prehis¬ 
toric  times  had  communications  with  the  Celestial  Empire, 
and  derived  therefrom,  in  part  at  least,  its  earliest 
civilization. 

A  curious  clay  musical  instrument  in  this  museum  is 
supposed  to  be  at  least  a  thousand  years  old.  It  has 
eleven  notes,  but  on  a  scale  different  from  any  known  in 
modem  music. 

From  the  still  cloister  of  a  library  to  the  dark  cells  of 
a  prison  is  a  sharp  transition,  but  alas  !  in  our  modern 
civilization  the  latter  is  as  necessary  as  the  former.  The 


LIMA,  THE  PARIS  OF  THE  SOUTH 


99 


courteous  governor  of  the  prison  showed  us  every  part  of 
his  sorrowful  domain,  and  I  must  say  I  have  never  seen 
a  cleaner  or  better-ordered  penitentiary.  Over  every 
door  were  the  words,  “  Sieexcia,  Obediencia,  Tbabajo 
(work)  ”  and  the  prisoners,  most  of  whom  were  Indians 
or  half-breeds,  seemed  to  exemplify  the  mottoes  in  their 
workshops  and  at  the  breakfast  table,  when  we  saw  them 
at  their  morning  meal. 

All  in  all,  Lima  deserves  its  place  among  the  world’s 
capitals.  It  has  had  a  great  and  stirring  history.  It  is 
inhabited  by  a  progressive,  energetic,  patriotic  people. 
It  has  an  almost  unrivalled  situation  as  the  central  metrop¬ 
olis  of  the  Andes.  Its  future  I  believe  will  be  greater 
and  better  than  its  past. 


XII 

AN  ADVENTURE  IN  THE  HIGH  ANDES 


The  Start  from  Lima— The  Chalaca — The  Highest  Railway  Pass  in  the 
World— A  Modern  Wonder— The  Road  Through  the  Desert— Deli¬ 
cious  Fruit— Switch  Backs— The  Bridge  of  the  Little  Hell— The  Ter¬ 
races  of  the  Ancient  Incas— The  Llamas  and  Their  Load— A  Land¬ 
slide  and  Its  Consequences. 

WE  were  in  the  vicinity  of  Lima  long  enough  to 
take  the  most  wonderful  railway  journey  in 
the  world,  on  the  Peruvian  Central  Railway  ; 
a  journey  which  included  an  adventure  that  came  near 
preventing  me  from  writing  this  or  any  later  chapter 
of  “The  Continent  of  Opportunity.” 

But,  to  begin  at  the  beginning  and  “not  to  antici¬ 
pate,”  as  the  story- writers  say,  we  started  from  Lima 
one  bright  February  morning  (every  February  morning 
and  every  other  morning  in  Lima  is  “brite  and  fare,” 
for  the  city  sees  no  rain  from  one  year’s  end  to  the  other) 
in  a  special  excursion  train  chartered  by  our  fellow  pas¬ 
sengers  on  the  steamer,  as  there  was  no  regular  train  that 
would  get  back  in  time  for  the  sailing  of  our  boat. 

This  excursion- car,  which  is  kept  for  just  such  pur¬ 
poses,  is  a  curious  bob-tailed  affair,  called  the  Chalaca 
(or  Callao).  It  looks  as  if  about  one-third  of  an  ordinary 
passenger-car  had  been  sliced  off  and  closed  up  at  the 
sliced  end.  It  would  comfortably  hold  perhaps  fifteen 
people. 

The  engine  was  equally  diminutive,  and  was  meant 
only  to  pull  this  little  car ;  but  it  was  a  sturdy  little  loco¬ 
motive  built  in  Wilmington,  Del.,  and  went  puffing  up 

100 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  THE  HIGH  ANDES  101 


the  steep  grades  of  the  Andes  at  a  great  rate,  as  if  it 
meant  to  reach  the  summit  or  perish  in  the  attempt. 

At  once  after  leaving  the  station  at  Lima  the  road  be¬ 
gins  to  climb  and  never  stops  climbing  until  it  reaches  a 
point  on  Mt.  Meiggs,  the  Galera  tunnel,  15, 500  feet  above 
the  sea.  This  enormous  height,  overtopping  Mt.  Blanc, 
is  the  highest  railway  pass  in  the  world. 

The  whole  railway  is  a  wonderful  monument  to  Amer¬ 
ican  pluck  and  engineering  skill,  for  it  was  built  by  Mr. 
Meiggs,  the  eminent  financier  and  promoter  who  came 
to  grief  in  California  and  largely  reinstated  himself  in 
public  opinion  before  his  death  in  South  America. 
When  we  remember  that  it  was  constructed  thirty  years 
ago,  before  the  building  of  mountain  railways  was  under¬ 
stood  as  it  is  to-day,  the  wonder  of  this  stupendous  rail¬ 
way  grows  upon  us. 

Says  Mr.  Newhouse,  a  well-known  English  writer  : 
“This  admirable  work  puts  Peru  in  the  first  place 
among  all  the  countries  of  Latin  America,  as  no  other 
can  pride  itself  on  possessing  such  a  colossal  work  as  the 
Oroya  Railroad,  which,  together  with  the  Suez  Canal,  the 
Thames,  Mersey,  and  St.  Gothard  tunnels,  and  the 
Brooklyn  Bridge,  hold  the  supremacy  of  the  wonderful 
civil  constructions  of  our  times.  It  is  simply  astounding 
that  a  South  American  republic  just  emerging  into  life, 
exposed  to  all  the  ups  and  downs  of  its  political  destiny, 
should  have  undertaken  and  carried  out  this  gigantic 
work  which  might  rouse  the  envy  of  many  nations  of  the 
Old  and  New  World.’ ’ 

Such  encomiums  do  not  seem  exaggerated  as  one 
mounts  the  heights  of  the  Andes  on  the  wings  of  this 
wonderful  railway.  In  fact,  the  dictionary  does  not  con¬ 
tain  adjectives  enough  to  over-express  the  sublimity  and 
grandeur  of  this  journey. 

For  the  first  forty  miles  out  of  Lima  the  country,  ex- 


102  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


cept  where  irrigated,  is  an  absolute  desert.  No  rain  has 
fallen  here  to  any  appreciable  extent  within  the  memory 
of  man.  Gaunt,  forbidding,  verdureless  mountains 
stretch  up  to  heaven.  To  the  right,  to  the  left,  be¬ 
fore,  behind,  everywhere,  these  awful,  frowning  moun¬ 
tains  ! 

To  be  sure,  the  road  follows  the  bed  of  the  rushing 
Rimac  River,  which  supplies  Lima  with  electric  power 
and  with  delicious  water  ;  but  the  stream,  beautiful  as  it 
is  in  its  foaming,  white,  billowy  course,  seems  to  make  but 
little  impression  upon  the  soil  along  its  banks  ;  and  the 
desert,  except  for  a  few  bushes  or  a  thin  strip  of  green, 
seems  to  come  down  to  the  water’s  edge,  as  much  as  to 
say,  u  This  is  my  domain  ;  I  am  supreme  here.” 

In  some  few  places  the  water  has  been  drawn  off  from 
the  river  to  irrigate  the  surrounding  fields  ;  and,  where 
this  has  been  done,  everything  smiles  as  if  it  were  the 
garden  of  the  Lord,  for  the  soil  is  wonderfully  productive 
wherever  water  can  reach  it.  Great  fields  of  Indian  corn 
and  sugar-cane  wave  in  the  breeze  at  such  places ;  tall 
palms  and  banana  trees  spring  up  as  if  by  magic  by 
every  irrigating  canal ;  and  all  plant  life  flourishes. 

Peaches,  pears,  and  apples,  delicious  avocado  pears, 
watermelons,  strawberries,  custard  apples,  oranges,  and 
half  a  dozen  other  varieties  of  fruit  one  never  sees  out  of 
the  tropics  grow  in  these  sheltered,  irrigated  fields  on  the 
foot-hills  of  the  Andes.  Picturesque  Indians  offer  the 
fruit  for  sale  at  the  railway  stations.  Some  of  them  are 
Peruvian  Indians,  degenerate  sons  of  noble  Inca  sires ; 
others  are  from  the  Bolivian  plateau,  and  are  known  by 
their  peculiar  ponchos,  which  in  reality  are  nothing  but 
bright-coloured  blankets  with  a  hole  cut  through  the 
middle,  through  which  the  Indian  thrusts  his  head. 

Up,  up,  up,  up,  the  wonderful  railway  rises,  one  thou¬ 
sand,  two  thousand,  five  thousand,  ten  thousand,  fifteen 


AN  ADYENTUEE  IN  THE  HIGH  ANDES  103 


thousand  feet  above  the  sea  ;  and  with  every  turn  and 
zigzag  the  scenery  becomes  more  awfully  grand. 

There  is  no  rack-and-pinion  system  on  this  road,  as  in 
Switzerland,  where  the  mountain  railways  could  almost 
climb  straight  up  the  side  of  a  church  ;  but  the  ascent  in 
the  Andes  is  made  by  switch- backs,  the  road  running  as 
far  as  it  can  in  one  direction,  and  then  turning  and  run¬ 
ning  in  the  opposite  direction  to  compass  another  eleva¬ 
tion. 

There  are  many  tunnels  and  bridges  over  frightful 
chasms.  One  of  these,  the  Yerrugas  bridge,  is  the 
highest  in  the  world  ;  and  it  seems,  on  looking  down 
from  the  parapet,  as  if  you  were  gazing  into  the  very 
bowels  of  the  earth.  Another  is  called  the  u  Puente  del 
Infernillo,”  or  the  u  Bridge  of  the  Little  Hell.”  So 
dreadful  were  the  surroundings,  and  so  dizzy  the  depth, 
that  one  might  be  excused  for  leaving  off  the  qualifying 
adjective  in  naming  it. 

However  high  we  reached,  we  did  not  get  out  of  the 
region  of  Alpine  flowers.  Great  bushes  of  heliotrope 
lined  the  banks  wherever  there  was  any  moisture,  until 
we  had  reached  a  height  of  ten  thousand  feet  at  least,  but 
they  were  a  scentless  heliotrope,  like  most  other  Andean 
flowers. 

Nor  did  we  lose  sight  of  the  Inca  civilization  in  all  this 
journey.  The  remains  of  the  splendid  roads  they  cut  out 
of  the  mountainside,  are  still  there.  The  terraces  on  the 
side  of  the  steepest  hills,  sometimes  forty  or  fifty  of  them 
one  above  another,  were  simply  stupendous  monuments 
of  their  patience  and  skill,  and  are  still  plainly  visible. 

Think  of  starting  with  bare,  wind-swept,  sun-baked 
rocks  thousands  of  feet  high,  as  the  Andes  are  in  this  part 
of  the  chain,  and  making  a  garden  of  them  for  more  than 
a  thousand  feet  up  their  precipitous  sides !  That  is  what 
the  Incas  did  on  the  sides  of  these  tremendous  precipices. 


104  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Of  course  all  the  soil  had  to  be  hoisted  up  to  these  eyries 
on  the  backs  of  men,  for  there  is  no  natural  soil  there. 
But  there  they  had  their  gardens,  and  raised  their  maize 
and  their  fruits  and  their  flowers.  Nothing  has  given 
me  a  more  vivid  sense  of  the  power  and  advanced  civ¬ 
ilization  of  this  wonderful  race  than  these  mountain 
terraces. 

The  animals  of  the  Andes  are  also  most  interesting. 
Way  up  on  a  mountainside  two  thousand  feet  above  us 
we  could  often  descry  a  flock  of  goats  or  some  white  mov¬ 
ing  patches  about  as  big  as  flies,  which  afterwards  re¬ 
solved  themselves  into  sheep.  Hardy  little  donkeys  would 
trudge  along  nonchalantly,  but  really  with  the  utmost 
care,  on  the  edge  of  an  awful  precipice,  where  a  misstep 
would  mean  instant  death  two  thousand  feet  below. 

But  the  most  interesting  and  characteristic  animals  are 
the  llamas.  These  hardy  little  beasts  are  daintily  built 
and  intelligent,  and  are  largely  used  as  burden-bearers  in 
the  high  Andes.  They  have  long,  graceful  necks,  liquid 
brown  eyes,  and  shaggy  wool  on  their  backs,  which,  how¬ 
ever,  is  too  coarse  to  be  of  much  value  commercially. 
But  as  beasts  of  burden  they  are  most  valuable,  carrying 
each  a  load  of  a  hundred  pounds  and  refusing  to  carry 
any  more,  even  when  it  is  put  upon  them.  But  with  this 
load  they  will  trudge  along  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  a  day, 
for  weeks  at  a  time,  asking  for  no  water  and  but  for  little 
food  ;  and  that  little  they  pick  up  for  themselves  on  the 
way. 

After  journeying  about  forty  miles  the  mountains 
showed  symptoms  of  greenness ;  grass  and  shrubs  and 
flowers  became  more  numerous,  for  we  were  getting 
beyond  the  rainless  belt  into  the  section  that  enjoys  a 
rainy  season.  To  our  sorrow  we  soon  found  that  we  were 
journeying  in  the  rainy  season,  as  the  sequel  of  our  story 
proves. 


AN  ADVENTURE  IN  THE  HIGH  ANDES  105 


For  six  hours  we  steadily  climbed  by  curves  and 
switch-backs  this  tremendous  chain  of  mountains.  At 
last  our  time  was  exhausted,  and  reluctantly  we  had  to 
turn  back,  after  reaching  a  height  of  some  12,500  feet, 
not  the  highest  point  on  the  road  by  any  means,  but  one 
that  afforded  one  of  the  grandest  views. 

By  this  time  it  had  begun  to  rain  heavily.  For  an 
hour  we  descended  merrily,  running  about  twenty  miles 
an  hour,  when  suddenly,  upon  turning  a  sharp  curve, 
there  directly  in  our  path  was  a  landslide  which  had 
brought  down  tons  of  mud  and  soil  and  rocks  upon  the 
track.  It  was  too  late  to  avoid  it.  The  engineer  reversed 
his  engine,  but  plump  went  the  little  locomotive  into  the 
soft  debris,  almost  burying  itself  in  it.  Fortunately  for 
us  the  mass  was  very  soft,  and  neither  car  nor  engine  left 
the  track ;  otherwise  we  should  have  rolled  over  a  fright¬ 
ful  precipice  hundreds  of  feet  into  the  valley  beneath, 
for  we  were  nearly  nine  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  when 
the  accident  occurred. 

Our  engine  shrieked  for  help,  with  all  its  steam  lungs, 
and  soon  a  gang  of  workmen  came  to  dig  it  out ;  but,  as 
it  threatened  to  be  an  all-night’s  job,  we  walked  on  some 
five  miles  to  the  next  station,  through  the  drenching 
rain.  Within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  we  passed  four  other 
landslides,  one  much  larger  than  the  one  which  stalled 
our  engine. 

Every  moment  there  was  danger  of  further  landslips 
and  boulders  coming  down  upon  our  heads,  for  a  heavy 
shower  always  loosens  the  soil,  and  makes  travelling  dan¬ 
gerous  at  this  time  of  the  year.  But  we  reached  the  next 
station  in  safety,  and  there  spent  the  night  in  a  little 
village  inn. 

By  six  o’clock  the  next  morning  our  engine  had  been 
dug  out  of  its  muddy  bed.  It  proved  to  be  uninjured, 
and  we  went  on  our  way  rejoicing,  down  the  great  moun- 


106  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


tain’s  flanks,  with  a  new  realization  of  the  beauty  and 
truth  of  the  words  of  the  travellers’  Psalm,  “  The  Lord 
shall  preserve  thy  going  out  and  thy  coming  in  from  this 
time  forth,  and  even  for  evermore.” 


XIII 


WHERE  THE  STARS  SIT  FOR  THEIR  PORTRAITS 

A  Jewel  Worthy  of  Its  Setting — How  We  Reach  Arequipa — Travelling 
Sand  Hills — A  Wonderful  Transformation  Scene — A  Garden  of  Eden 
in  Bloom — Misti  and  Chachani — Hotel  Horse  Car — Big  Busy  and 
Bigoted  Arequipa — The  Great  Cathedral — The  Walk  to  the  Observa¬ 
tory— The  Great  Telescopes — What  the  Camera  Reveals. 

THEEE  are  many  observatories  in  the  world,  but 
none,  I  venture  to  say,  quite  like  the  one  on  the 
Andes  in  the  heart  of  Peru,  in  the  old  and  proud 
city  of  Arequipa. 

It  is  a  jewel  worthy  of  its  setting,  and  all  the  more  in¬ 
teresting  in  my  eyes  because  it  is  an  American  observa¬ 
tory,  manned  by  American  astronomers,  built  and 
equipped  by  American  money,  a  branch  of  Harvard 
University,  separated  from  its  parent  institution  by 
almost  the  diameter  of  the  world. 

It  is  a  far  cry  from  Cambridge,  Mass.,  to  Arequipa, 
Peru,  and  a  weary  journey.  With  the  best  luck  in  mak¬ 
ing  connections  it  cannot  often  be  accomplished  in  less 
than  a  month.  After  sailing  to  Panama  in  seven  days, 
and  crossing  the  Isthmus,  one  must  crawl  down  the  west 
side  of  South  America  as  already  described  in  the  slow¬ 
est  kind  of  a  coasting-steamer,  which  makes  an  average 
of  about  a  hundred  miles  a  day,  stopping  at  all  sorts 
of  insignificant  and  unheard-of  ports. 

At  last  Mollendo,  a  surf-lashed  landing-place  on  the 
utterly  unprotected  shore  of  Peru,  is  reached.  If  we 
have  good  fortune,  we  may  be  able  to  get  ashore  the  same 
day,  or  we  may  have  to  be  carried  by  to  the  next  port, 
and  wait  for  a  week  before  we  can  get  back,  as  in  rough 

107 


108  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


weather  no  one  can  embark  or  disembark  at  Mollendo 
for  days  at  a  time. 

Neptune  favoured  us,  for  it  was  reasonably  calm  when 
we  landed,  and  after  a  tremendous  tossing  and  bouncing 
on  the  mountainous  swell  which  always  rolls  in  on  that 
coast,  our  sturdy  Indian  boatman  guided  our  little  craft 
in  between  the  threatening  rocks  that  bar  the  entrance  to 
the  landing-stairs,  and  we  found  ourselves  in  one  of  the 
driest,  dustiest,  most  forbidding  little  towns  on  the  planet. 

But  everybody  is  so  glad  to  get  ashore  at  Mollendo  that 
he  does  not  mind  dust  or  dirt,  and  rather  rejoices  in  any¬ 
thing  that  savours  of  terra  firma . 

The  train  was  waiting,  and  we  wasted  no  time  in  Mol¬ 
lendo,  but  boarded  an  American  car  drawn  by  an  Amer¬ 
ican  engine  that  was  to  take  us  over  mountains  three 
miles  high  and  land  us  at  last  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Titicaca.  But  long  before  scaling  the  loftiest  of  these 
dizzy  heights  we  should  reach  Arequipa,  which  is  less 
than  half-way  up  the  flanks  of  the  Andes. 

For  hours  our  sturdy  engine  puffed  and  panted  to  sur¬ 
mount  the  foot-hills  and  outer  ramparts  of  the  coast  range 
of  the  Andes,  ever  rising  higher  and  revealing  new  scenes 
of  desolate  grandeur.  Eocky  peaks,  precipices  frightful, 
abysmal  gullies,  a  constant  succession  of  them  as  far  as 
the  eye  could  see  and  as  much  farther  as  the  imagination 
could  reach.  At  one  place  where  we  crossed  a  plateau  a 
few  miles  wide  we  saw  hundreds  of  the  famous  travelling 
sand-hills  which  submerge  railway  stations  and  every¬ 
thing  else  in  their  irresistible  progress,  and  which  often 
keep  an  army  of  men  shovelling  out  the  rails  and  rolling- 
stock. 

Then  more  mountains,  and  more  and  more,  our  road 
ever  crawling  up,  up,  up,  but  never  showing  us  a  blade 
of  grass,  or  a  tree,  or  a  green  thing  on  all  the  vast 
mountainsides. 


WHERE  THE  STARS  SIT 


109 


At  last,  after  about  six  hours  of  climbing,  we  reach  a 
height  of  nearly  eight  thousand  feet,  and  suddenly  a 
wonderful  transformation-scene  greets  our  eyes.  Just 
below  us  is  a  valley  of  marvellous  fertility, — the  valley 
of  the  Chili  River.  Great  fields  of  the  greenest  alfalfa 
line  its  banks  and  acres  of  the  heaviest  Indian  corn  I  ever 
saw  wave  their  tasselled  plumes  in  the  air ;  for  it  is  the 
end  of  summer  in  Peru  about  the  middle  of  March. 
Sugar-cane,  banana-trees,  palms,  peach-trees,  pome¬ 
granates,  figs,  and  various  rare  and  curious  fruit-trees 
we  never  saw  before,  greet  our  eyes. 

At  each  little  station  swarms  of  swarthy  Peruvians, 
whose  natural  complexion  was  enhanced  by  several  layers 
of  soil,  beseech  us  to  buy  great  baskets  holding  at  least  a 
peck  of  delicious  green  grapes  for  twenty  cents  in  their 
money  (ten  tents  in  gold),  or  as  many  purple  figs  for  the 
same  price. 

The  transition  from  the  savage,  uncompromising  desert 
to  this  blooming  Garden  of  Eden  is  so  sudden  that  we  can 
hardly  believe  our  eyes.  It  is  as  if  a  panorama  had  been 
unrolled  suddenly,  and  we  are  half  inclined  to  think  that 
the  valley  of  the  Chili  is  only  painted  upon  canvas. 

But  as  this  thought  crosses  our  minds,  the  impos¬ 
ing  city  of  Arequipa,  with  its  cathedral  towers,  and 
many  churches  and  plazas  and  public  buildings  comes  in 
view ;  and  we  realize  that  we  are  in  one  of  the  most 
fertile  and  famous  valleys  in  all  Peru. 

The  picturesqueness  and  grandeur  of  the  scene  are  in¬ 
creased  tenfold  by  two  great  mountains,  Misti  and  Cha- 
chani,  which  stretch  up  nearly  twenty  thousand  feet 
towards  the  sun,  and  form  a  magnificent  background  to 
the  city  only  a  few  miles  away.  Misti  is  regular,  sym¬ 
metrical,  cone-shaped,  a  South  American  Fujiyama,  only 
much  higher  than  the  beautiful  mountain  shrine  of  the 
Japanese.  Chachani,  though  nearly  as  high,  is  ragged 


110  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


and  rugged,  and  rises  in  several  jagged  saw- teeth  to  the 
heavens,  a  mountain  even  more  imposing  than  smooth 
and  regular  Misti.  Both  are  covered  with  snow  from  an 
elevation  of  16,000  feet  to  the  top,  and  every  morning  we 
see  donkeys,  laden  with  snow  and  ice  from  this  natural 
refrigerator,  bringing  down  their  cold  product  for  the  ice 
cream  shops  of  Arequipa. 

At  the  railway  station  we  are  met  not  by  a  hack  or 
bus  of  any  kind,  but  by  a  special  hotel  horse-car  which 
takes  us  to  the  u  Gran  Central/’  a  hotel  whose  grandilo¬ 
quent  name  tries  to  make  up  for  other  deficiencies. 

Arequipa  is  one  of  the  biggest,  busiest,  and  most 
bigoted  cities  in  Peru.  Next  to  Lima,  it  is,  perhaps,  of 
the  most  importance.  It  is  the  stronghold  of  the  oldest 
and  most  conservative  families.  Priestcraft  flourishes  ; 
the  women  especially  are  peculiarly  fanatical ;  and  until 
recently  Protestantism  has  had  no  foothold  at  all  within 
its  borders.  Even  now  the  worshippers  in  the  little  back 
upper  room  which  serves  as  a  Protestant  chapel  are  often 
stoned,  as  they  were  one  evening  when  I  attended  it ;  and 
landlords,  frightened  by  the  priests,  often  compel  the 
mission  and  the  missionaries  to  move  from  place  to  place. 

But  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jarrett  and  their  assistants,  Mr. 
Ritchie  and  Mr.  Job  of  the  “Regions  Beyond”  mission, 
are  bravely  holding  this  difficult  fort  on  the  very  frontier 
of  Protestantism.  The  meetings  are  well  attended ;  a 
few  converts  have  rewarded  their  efforts  ;  and  a  foothold 
has  been  gained  for  the  Reformed  faith,  which  the  machi¬ 
nations  of  the  dominant  church,  and  the  frequent  false¬ 
hoods  of  the  newspapers  about  Protestantism,  and  the 
constant  attack  on  the  Protestant  missionaries,  will  not  be 
able  to  uproot. 

The  cathedral  at  Arequipa  is  an  imposing  building 
occupying  a  whole  side  of  a  large  plaza,  which,  for  some 
unaccountable  reason,  has  just  been  destroyed  by  the 


WHERE  THE  STARS  SIT 


111 


authorities,  the  trees  and  plants  ruthlessly  torn  up,  and 
the  whole  beautiful  square  made  a  howling  wilderness. 

But  for  most  Americans  Arequipa  is  strictly  the  jewel- 
case  which,  as  I  have  said,  holds  the  jewel  of  the  Harvard 
Observatory  j  and  like  most  of  our  countrymen  we  soon 
made  our  way  out  to  this  famous  spot  two  miles  from  the 
centre  of  the  city. 

The  walk  to  the  observatory  is  a  fine  preparation  for 
what  we  find  at  our  journey’s  end.  It  leads  through  the 
oldest,  dirtiest,  slummiest  part  of  Arequipa.  The  narrow, 
cobble-paved  streets  are  reeking  with  filth  and  thick  with 
dust.  Every  other  open  door  you  pass  in  the  long  lines 
of  mud  and  adobe  houses  (and  they  are  all  open,  reveal¬ 
ing  all  the  occupations  and  privacies  of  the  families)  is  a 
low  shop  for  eating  and  drinking,  where  frowzy  women 
and  pockmarked,  low-browed  men  are  eating  themselves 
full,  and  drinking  themselves  drunk  with  cheap  alcohol. 
Over  many  of  the  shops  are  curious  tin  signs,  with  all 
sorts  of  mermaids,  sea-nymphs,  and  land  hobgoblins 
painted  on  them. 

Through  nearly  a  mile  of  such  streets  we  pass,  and  then 
emerge  into  the  comparatively  open  country.  A  little 
farther,  and  we  mount  a  steep  rise  of  ground,  which  in 
this  rarified  air  makes  us  pant ;  and  find  ourselves  out  of 
the  purgatory  of  Arequipa’ s  slums  and  in  the  paradise 
of  a  fresh,  clean,  sweet,  flower-decked  American  home. 
Mrs.  Frost,  the  wife  of  the  director,  welcomes  us  most 
hospitably  to  her  comfortable  home  and  spacious  pi¬ 
azza,  which  commands  one  of  the  finest  views  in  Peru, 
and  indeed,  in  all  the  world.  Around  the  house  is  a 
large  garden  of  beautiful  flowers.  Here  are  geraniums 
and  heliotropes  growing  as  large  as  barberry  bushes  with 
us,  exquisite  roses,  a  great  peach-tree  loaded  with  blush¬ 
ing  fruit,  fine  Norfolk  Island  pines,  and  all  sorts  of  trop¬ 
ical  and  temperate  fruits  and  flowers. 


112  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


In  the  foreground  lies  the  luxuriant  valley  of  the  Chili, 
and,  just  beyond,  the  city  of  Arequipa,  which  looks 
clean  and  fresh  through  the  merciful  spy-glass  of  dis¬ 
tance.  Off  to  the  west,  but  yet  so  near  that  every  ridge 
and  outline  is  defined  in  the  marvellous  atmosphere,  are 
beautiful  Misti  and  lordly  Chachani,  each  towering  more 
than  two  miles  above  us,  while  the  rushing  Chili  River 
cuts  a  deep  gorge  at  the  foot  of  the  observatory  hill. 
What  view  in  all  the  world  combines  such  mountains  and 
such  a  valley  with  roaring  river  and  busy  city  to  give 
life  to  the  superb  scene ? 

The  observatory  is  built  for  the  sole  purpose  of  pho¬ 
tographing  the  heavens,  and  this  spot  was  chosen,  after 
careful  study  of  many  other  parts  of  the  world,  as  the  very 
best  accessible  place  for  the  purpose,  by  reason  of  the 
rarity  and  exceeding  clarity  of  the  air  in  the  dry  season. 

Two  telescopes  are  here  mounted,  one  of  which  is  the 
largest  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  Though  it  weighs  two 
tons,  it  is  so  nicely  balanced  and  adjusted  that  it  can  al¬ 
most  be  moved  with  the  little  finger.  Mr.  Frost,  the  di¬ 
rector  (and,  by  the  way,  his  assistant  is  Mr.  Snow),  kindly 
explained  the  working  of  the  tremendous  camera,  which 
cost  $50,000,  and  has  probably  added  more  to  the  perma¬ 
nent  record  of  the  heavens  than  any  other  instrument. 

Every  clear  night  when  the  moon  is  not  too  bright  the 
great  lens  is  pointed  to  some  spot  in  the  heavens  ;  and  the 
stars  are  made  to  give  up  the  age-long  secret  of  their . 
numbers,  their  distance,  and  their  composition.  Mr. 
Frost  showed  us  a  single  negative,  seventeen  by  fourteen 
inches  in  size  on  which  he  had  caught  the  pictures  of — 
how  many  stars  should  you  guess?  A  hundred,  five 
hundred,  five  thousand?  No  less  than  four  hundred 
thousand  !  And  it  would  take  two  thousand  plates  of 
this  size  to  photograph  the  whole  heavens  as  seen  from 
the  Arequipa  observatory. 


WHERE  THE  STARS  SIT 


113 


To  be  sure,  not  all  these  plates  would  contain  so  many 
stars  as  this  famous  one  ;  but,  making  all  allowances, 
how  many  millions  upon  millions  of  worlds  does  this 
giant  camera  reveal,  many  of  these  worlds  so  remote  that 
the  eye  could  not  detect  them  when  aided  by  the  most 
powerful  telescope  !  But  the  photographic  plate  is  far 
more  sensitive  than  the  human  eye. 

There  is  a  luminous  spot  in  the  heavens  that  looks  like 
a  single  star  to  the  naked  eye.  When  the  Arequipa  lens 
is  turned  upon  it,  and  its  photograph  is  taken,  it  resolves 
itself  into  eight  thousand  different  stars,  some  of  them  so 
remote  that  their  light  has  taken  hundreds  of  years  to 
reach  us.  In  comparison  with  their  distance  a  journey 
to  our  moon  would  be  as  a  walk  across  the  street  when 
compared  to  a  journey  from  Cambridge  to  Arequipa. 

Such  marvels  is  this  great  telescope  constantly  bring¬ 
ing  to  light,  and  peopling  our  universe  with  hitherto  un¬ 
seen  worlds. 

I  know  of  no  place  so  good  for  a  conceited  man  to  visit 
as  the  Arequipa  observatory.  First,  Misti  and  Chachani 
must  dwarf  him  in  his  own  eyes,  if  he  has  any  sense  of 
proportion  ;  and  then,  as  he  goes  into  the  observatory, 
and  sees  the  starry  wonders  reflected  on  the  photographic 
plate,  his  mind  is  staggered  at  the  vastness  of  the  uni¬ 
verse  ;  and  with  a  sense  of  his  own  insignificance  it  would 
seem  that  he  must  cry  out : 

u  When  I  consider  the  heavens,  the  work  of  Thy  fingers, 

The  moon  and  the  stars,  which  Thou  hast  ordained, 

What  is  man,  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him  ? 

And  the  son  of  man,  that  Thou  visitest  him  ?  ” 

Like  Coleridge,  interpreting  the  voice  of  Mt.  Blanc, 
one  can  only  hear  the  stars  at  Arequipa  say,  “  God ! 
God  !  God  !  God  !  ” 


XIV 

BOLIVIA,  THE  COUNTRY  OF  THE  GREAT  PLATEAU 


Its  Claims  to  Distinction — Its  Twenty  Lofty  Mountains — Its  Past  Min¬ 
eral  Wealth — Its  Blood-stained  History — The  Natives  Under  Spanish 
Rule — The  Revolt  of  Tupac  Amaru— Bolivia,  the  Battle-ground  of 
the  Great  Revolution — Bolivar’s  Ambition — Years  of  Lawless  Dicta¬ 
torship — The  Happier  Future. 

BOLIVIA  has  several  claims  to  distinction  among 
its  sister  states  of  South  America,  and  indeed 
among  the  nations  of  the  world.  No  other  coun¬ 
try  except  Thibet  is  so  near  the  heavens  physically,  what¬ 
ever  may  be  said  of  its  spiritual  and  moral  proximity. 
It  occupies  the  southern  part  of  the  great  central  plateau 
of  South  America,  and  except  where  this  plateau  drops 
sharply  towards  the  Atlantic,  its  people  live  in  the  rari- 
fied  atmosphere  of  12,000  feet  above  the  sea. 

Bolivia  contains  the  largest  number  of  lofty  mountain 
peaks  of  any  country  except  northern  India,  though  the 
highest  mountain  of  South  America  is  not  found  within 
her  borders,  but  in  Chile.  Yet,  rising  up  from  the 
enormous  Bolivian  plateau  are  fully  twenty  mountains 
that  approximate  20,000  feet  in  height,  and  several  that 
considerably  exceed  this  enormous  altitude.  It  is  diffi¬ 
cult  to  obtain  an  idea  of  these  Andean  monsters  until  one 
sees  them  for  himself  lying  along  the  horizon  with  their 
tremendous  bulk  and  towering,  here  and  there,  in  their 
white  solitariness,  far  towards  the  zenith,  dwarfing  the 
highest  Alps,  as  the  Alps  dwarf  the  white  hills  of  New 
Hampshire  or  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont. 

In  its  mineral  wealth,  too,  Bolivia  is  one  of  the  leaders 

114 


BOLIVIA 


115 


of  the  nations.  When  we  remember  that  in  its  isolation, 
cut  off  from  the  sea  by  four  hundred  miles  of  almost  im¬ 
passable  mountain  wilds,  it  yet  ranks  third  among  the 
silver  producing  countries  of  the  world,  and  almost  as 
high  in  its  production  of  tin  and  copper,  we  see  that  the 
Bolivia  of  the  Great  Plateau,  in  spite  of  its  remoteness 
and  its  sparse  and  ignorant  population,  is  a  country  to  be 
reckoned  with. 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  Bolivia,  of  all  South 
American  countries,  has  been  most  distracted  by  civil 
wars,  tyrannized  over  by  dictators,  and  made  the  constant 
football  of  her  stronger  neighbours  ;  that  she  has  enjoyed 
only  about  a  decade  of  comparatively  stable  national  life, 
and  that  she  emerged  from  a  perfect  chaos  of  misrule  and 
anarchical  plunder  only  a  score  of  years  ago.  Under 
these  conditions,  her  present  prosperity  and  future  bright 
prospects  seem  all  the  more  remarkable. 

Bolivia’s  recorded  history,  like  that  of  the  other  Inca 
states,  begins  with  Huascar  and  Atahuallpa,  the  contend¬ 
ing  emperor  brothers,  who,  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
conquest,  divided  all  Incadom  between  them.  Huascar’ s 
portion  was  the  southern  plateau  of  Peru,  including  lake 
Titicaca  and  the  great  table-lands  to  the  south  and  east 
(now  Bolivia)  where  his  ancestors  had  originated,  and 
where  the  greatest  temples  and  palaces  of  his  race  had 
been  built.  In  the  disastrous  war  with  his  stronger 
brother,  Atahuallpa,  he  had  been  worsted  and  captured, 
when  at  that  moment  Pizarro  came  upon  the  scene,  con¬ 
quered  and  basely  killed  Atahuallpa,  and  for  the  sake  of 
making  some  show  of  legitimacy  for  his  conquest,  sided 
with  Huascar’ s  line,  as  the  rightful  emperor,  and  rode 
with  him  in  triumph  into  Cuzco,  the  capital,  welcomed 
by  the  peoples  of  Bolivia  and  Chile  as  their  deliverer  and 
ally. 

Then  follow,  in  Bolivia’s  history  as  in  that  of  Peru  and 


116  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


Ecuador,  the  long  centuries  of  Spanish  misrule  and  op¬ 
pression,  when  nine-tenths  of  the  population  was  killed 
off  by  forced  labour  in  the  mines,  during  most  of  which 
the  docile  and  patient  Indians,  as  submissive  under  the 
pretensions  of  the  Spaniards  as  of  their  own  Incas,  went 
to  the  wall.  The  great  difference  was  that  under  the 
ancient  regime  of  their  emperors  they  were  protected, 
preserved,  regulated  to  the  last  degree  ;  their  birth,  mar¬ 
riage,  life  and  death  provided  for  ;  regarded  as  splendid 
draft  animals  to  be  carefully  cared  for ; — under  the 
Spaniards  they  were  worked  to  death  in  the  shortest  pos¬ 
sible  space  of  time,  regarded  only  as  machines  for  the 
extraction  of  gold  and  silver  from  the  mountains,  ma¬ 
chines  to  be  thrown  upon  the  scrap  heap  as  soon  as  they 
were  worn  out. 

“  To  work  the  mines,’ ’  we  are  told,  “the  Spaniards 
ruthlessly  impressed  the  helpless  Indians.  Each  village 
was  required  to  furnish  a  certain  number  of  labourers  an¬ 
nually.  Lots  were  drawn  as  if  for  a  proscription,  and 
the  unhappy  creatures  who  drew  the  bad  numbers  went 
off  to  meet  certain  death  in  the  dark  wet  pits  and  gal¬ 
leries,  bidding  good-bye  to  their  wives  and  children  like 
men  stepping  upon  the  scaffold.  The  destruction  of  life 
was  frightful,  the  returns  made  by  the  officials  charged 
with  the  impressment  demonstrating  that  in  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  of  Potosi,  the  Indian  population  fell  within  a 
hundred  years  to  a  tenth  of  its  original  numbers.”  1 

Not  that  there  were  not  laws,  often  complicated  and 
carefully  drawn,  to  protect  the  natives.  But  these  laws, 
framed  in  the  mother  country,  remained  largely  upon 
paper.  The  thirty  corregidors  or  governors  of  the  thirty 
different  districts  into  which  the  country  was  divided, 
simply  did  as  they  pleased,  each  intent  upon  wringing 
the  last  dollar  from  the  unhappy  land.  The  Indians 
1  Dawson’s  “  South  American  Republics,” 


BOLIVIA 


117 


were  entirely  at  their  mercy,  and  even  the  whites  and 
half-breeds  could  do  but  little,  if  anything,  to  restrain 
the  avarice  and  cruelty  of  the  governors. 

There  was  but  one  determined  effort  to  resist  this 
infamous  rapacity,  and  this  was  made  in  1780  by  Tupac 
Amaru,  a  direct  descendant  of  the  Inca  emperors,  whose 
blood  was  stirred,  like  that  of  Moses,  by  the  insolent 
oppression  of  the  taskmasters.  Like  Moses,  too,  he  took 
the  law  into  his  own  hands,  and  slew  one  of  the  worst  of 
these  taskmasters,  a  corregidor  whose  misrule  was  par¬ 
ticularly  intolerable.  Then  he  called  upon  the  people  to 
rise,  and  they  flocked  to  his  standard  by  the  thousands. 

Tupac  was  able  to  equip  some  of  them  with  firearms, 
and  at  first  his  troops  were  successful.  Wherever  he 
went  he  addressed  the  people  from  the  church  steps,  call¬ 
ing  upon  them  to  rise  and  redress  their  wrongs  j  but 
though  he  was  hailed  everywhere  as  the  redeemer,  he 
could  not  promote  a  general  insurrection,  so  subservient 
had  the  Indians  become  to  the  Spaniards  and  so  fearful 
of  disobeying  them.  Vastly  superior  forces  soon  con¬ 
quered  his  small  army,  and  “  he  himself  was  sentenced  to 
be  torn  in  pieces  by  horses  after  witnessing  with  his  own 
eyes  the  fearful  tortures  and  death  of  his  innocent  wife 
and  children.’ 7 

But  Tupac  did  not  die  in  vain.  The  awful  barbarity 
of  the  punishment  inflicted  upon  himself  and  his  com¬ 
rades  aroused  such  indignation  even  in  the  breasts  of  the 
stolid  Indians  and  half-breeds,  and  their  threats  became 
so  ominous  that  the  frightened  home  government  abol¬ 
ished  the  office  of  corregidor  and  introduced  many  of  the 
reforms  for  which  Tupac  fought.  Even  then  the  Spanish 
power  was  doomed,  and  the  people  only  awaited  the 
favourable  moment  for  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  three 
centuries. 

This  time  came  to  Bolivia,  then  called  Upper  Peru,  as 


118  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


to  the  other  South  American  countries,  when,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  troubles  of  the 
Bourbons  at  home  occupied  their  attention  and  gave  the 
oppressed  people  their  opportunity.  1 1  From  1809  to 
1825, 7  7  we  are 'told,  u  with  scarcely  an  intermission, 
battle  succeeded  battle,  campaign  campaign,  and  insur¬ 
rection  insurrection,  as  the  Spaniards  and  patriots,  alter¬ 
nately  victorious,  marched  and  countermarched  along 
the  great  mountain  road  that  winds  through  the  plateau 
from  Humahuaca,  on  the  Argentine  frontier,  to  the  bar¬ 
rier  north  of  Lake  Titicaca.  Not  a  village  but  what  was 
captured  and  pillaged,  not  merely  once  but  many  times, 
and  the  tale  of  garottings,  of  massacres,  burnings  and 
depredations,  of  heads  and  hands  spiked  up  by  hundreds 
along  the  highways,  wearies  in  the  telling.” 

Bolivia  was  the  battle  ground  of  the  contending  armies 
more  than  any  of  the  South  American  republics,  being 
midway  between  the  Argentine,  Chile,  on  the  one  side, 
and  Northern  Peru  and  Ecuador  on  the  other,  and  was 
the  Virginia  of  the  long  rebellion  which  at  last  freed 
South  America  from  Spanish  domination. 

San  Martin  and  Sucr6  are  the  two  names  that  emerge 
from  the  welter  of  these  awful  years  of  bloodshed  with 
distinction,  because  of  their  bravery  and  genuine  patriot¬ 
ism.  San  Martin  was  an  Argentine  who  fought  unsel¬ 
fishly  for  South  American  freedom,  and  never  yielded  to 
Bolivar7  s  sin,  the  desire  for  personal  aggrandizement  and 
power.  To  be  sure,  Bolivar  was  in  at  the  finish  when 
the  Spaniards,  worn  out  by  the  stubborn  resistance  of  the 
colonists,  were  about  ready  to  give  in,  and  the  grateful 
people  hailed  him  as  their  saviour  and  named  their 
country  for  him — Bolivia. 

But  his  ambition  was  soon  plainly  evident, — to  carve 
out  a  number  of  small  states  with  his  faithful  henchmen 
for  governors,  while  he  himself  should  be  dictator  of  the 


BOLIVIA 


119 


whole  South  American  confederation.  To  this  end  he 
practically  defined  the  limits  of  Bolivia  or  Upper  Peru, 
which  were  substantially  the  boundaries  of  the  Bolivia  of 
to-day,  though  she  was  given  a  little  strip  of  coast  line, 
which,  a  few  years  ago,  she  lost  in  the  disastrous  war 
with  Chile.  Even  yet  her  exact  boundaries  with  Peru, 
Brazil  and  the  Argentine  are  not  exactly  surveyed  or 
definitely  fixed,  though,  through  bargain  and  conquest 
on  one  side  or  the  other  they  are  gradually  approaching 
definiteness. 

On  the  11th  of  August,  1825,  the  new  Republic  of 
Bolivia  was  proclaimed.  In  her  Declaration  of  Inde¬ 
pendence  we  are  assured  that :  u  Upper  Peru  (Bolivia) 
is  the  altar  upon  which  the  first  blood  was  shed  for 
liberty  and  where  the  last  tyrant  perished.  The  barbar¬ 
ous  burning  of  more  than  a  hundred  villages,  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  towns,  the  scaffolds  raised  everywhere  for  the 
partisans  of  liberty,  the  blood  of  thousands  of  victims 
that  would  make  even  Caribs  shudder ;  the  taxes  and 
exactions,  as  arbitrary  as  inhuman,  the  insecurity  of 
property,  life  and  honour  itself ;  an  atrocious  and  merci¬ 
less  inquisitorial  system ;  all  have  not  been  able  to  ex¬ 
tinguish  the  sacred  fire  of  liberty  and  the  just  hatred  of 
Spanish  power.  ” 

Though  Bolivia  had  gained  her  independence,  she  had 
not  learned  to  use  it,  and  the  next  sixty  years  of  her  his¬ 
tory  are  years  of  miserable  misrule,  petty  squabbles  for 
power,  violent  and  lawless  dictatorships  when  some  strong 
and  unscrupulous  man  came  to  the  front a  history  not 
worth  studying  or  reciting.  Occasionally  an  honest  man,' 
like  Dr.  Linares,  made  some  effort  to  rid  his  countrymen 
from  the  rule  of  the  official  highwayman,  but  he  made 
little  impression  upon  its  history.  In  three  years  during 
the  rule  of  the  bastard,  Cordova,  no  less  than  nine  revo¬ 
lutions  were  started  and  suppressed,  and  the  average  of  a 


120  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


revolution  or  an  attempted  revolution  a  year  marked 
Bolivia’s  history  for  nearly  half  a  century. 

Things  became  so  bad  that  Great  Britain  at  last  ceased 
all  diplomatic  relations  with  her,  declaring  that :  i  L  Bo¬ 
livia  could  no  longer  be  recognized  as  a  civilized  nation.” 
To  this  day,  Great  Britain  is  accredited  with  no  minister 
at  La  Paz,  but  only  with  a  consular  agent. 

The  Chilean  war  of  1879,  though  in  one  respect  a  great 
calamity,  was  perhaps  a  blessing  in  disguise,  for  since  it 
deprived  Bolivia  of  her  strip  of  seacoast,  her  only  outlet 
to  the  world  over  her  own  soil,  it  threw  her  back  upon 
her  vast  resources  of  mine  and  forest,  which  she  is  now 
cultivating  more  industriously  than  ever. 

Since  the  Chilean  war  there  have  been  few  internal 
disturbances.  In  1899  occurred  the  last  revolution,  when 
General  Pando  overthrew  President  Alonzo  in  battle. 
Under  Pando’ s  presidency  the  country  enjoyed  tranquil¬ 
lity  and  greater  prosperity  than  ever,  which  has  been 
continued  and  increased  under  the  wise  rule  of  President 
Montt,  who  is  still  in  power. 

All  the  revolutions  and  counter  revolutions,  tyrannies 
and  usurpations  to  which  unhappy  Bolivia  has  been 
subjected,  have  not  destroyed  her  natural  resources,  and 
her  recuperating  power  is  great.  Her  mountains  are  still 
full  of  silver  and  gold,  tin  and  copper.  Her  forests  have 
inexhaustible  supplies  of  rubber  and  precious  woods, 
American  and  European  capital  is  pouring  into  the 
country  to  make  these  riches  available,  and  a  happier 
day  is  dawning  for  the  Republic  of  the  Great  Plateau. 


XY 


THE  SWITZERLAND  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Bolivia  Like  and  Unlike  Switzerland— Landing  at  Mollendo — Up  the 
Andes  by  Bail — A  Kibbon  of  Green — The  Beautiful  Yalley  of  Arequipa 
— The  Travelling  Sand  Hills  —14,666  Feet  Above  the  Sea — Satiated  with 
Mountains— The  Marvels  of  Lake  Titicaca — The  “  Coya  ”  and  the 
“  Inca  ’’—Titicaca  Island— A  Capital  in  a  Crater. 

BOLIVIA  like  Switzerland,  must  be  entered  through 
foreign  territory,  for  since  the  last  war  with  Chile 
she  has  had  no  outlet  to  the  sea  over  her  own  ter¬ 
ritory.  But  Bolivia  shares  with  Switzerland  the  advan¬ 
tages  of  a  mountainous  country,  difficult  of  access  by 
enemies,  and  capable  of  rearing  and  sustaining  a  sturdy 
race  of  progressive,  liberty-loving  people. 

Infinitely  behind  Switzerland  in  education,  stable  civil 
government,  refinement  and  cleanliness  of  the  people,  it 
is  yet  like  Switzerland  in  present-day  prosperity,  while 
its  resources  are  infinitely  beyond  Switzerland,  if  only 
they  were  developed.  Bolivia  is  a  Switzerland  with 
loftier  Alps,  larger  lakes,  and  far  more  extensive  table¬ 
lands,  a  Switzerland  with  silver,  copper  and  tin  in  un¬ 
limited  quantities  ;  a  Switzerland  that  can  produce  rub¬ 
ber,  coca,  and  quinine  as  can  no  other  land  were  these 
riches  fully  developed  ;  a  Switzerland  where  every  prod¬ 
uct  of  the  temperate  or  tropical  zone  will  flourish. 

Such  a  country  is  worth  careful  study  for  it  is  sure  to 
take  a  leading  place  among  the  South  American  Be- 
publics,  unless  conquered  and  annexed  by  some  of  her 
stronger  neighbours. 

The  approach  to  Bolivia  is  most  unpromising.  The 

121 


122  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


only  two  ports  by  which  she  reaches  the  sea  to-day  are 
Mollendo  and  Antofagasta  j  the  one  in  Peru,  the  other  in 
Chile,  and  each  vies  with  the  other  for  the  unhappy  dis¬ 
tinction  of  being  the  worst  port  in  the  known  world. 
They  are  both  merely  open  roadsteads  on  the  unindented 
western  coast  of  South  America,  and  the  swell  of  the 
Pacific  is  so  heavy  that  often,  for  days  at  a  time,  no  pas¬ 
sengers  can  be  landed  or  freight  handled.  We  landed  at 
Mollendo  in  Peru.  Even  on  a  calm  day  the  swell  seems 
frightful  to  a  landsman,  as  he  steps  off  the  ship’s  ladder, 
or  is  lowered  in  a  bucket  by  a  derrick  from  the  ship’s 
deck  into  a  small  boat. 

This  is  tossed  about  like  a  cockle  shell,  now  we  are 
thrown  up  to  heaven  on  the  crest  of  the  wave,  now 
dropped  down  towards  the  nadir  in  its  hollow ;  the 
swarthy  Peruvian  oarsmen  strain  at  the  oars,  they  avoid 
the  jagged  rocks  between  the  boat  and  the  pier  by  a 
hair’s  breadth,  and,  at  last,  land  us  safely  at  the  steps 
which  are  submerged  more  than  half  the  time,  and  where 
we  have  to  watch  our  chance  to  jump  out  of  the  boat 
when  it  rises  to  just  the  right  height,  neither  too  far 
above  or  too  far  below  the  slippery  landing  place.  And 
this  is  the  chief  port  of  entrance  and  exit  for  a  nation 
larger  in  area  than  France  or  Germany  with  Great  Britain 
added  to  either  one. 

The  further  approach  to  Bolivia  is  just  as  difficult  as 
the  entrance.  A  single  track  railway  starts  from  Mol¬ 
lendo,  and  after  running  a  dozen  miles  along  the  shore,  it 
strikes  boldly  in  among  the  mountains,  and  climbs  and 
climbs  and  climbs  5,000,  10,000,  almost  15,000  feet  before 
it  can  find  a  pass  by  which  the  Andes  can  be  crossed  into 
the  great  republic  of  Bolivia,  the  third  largest  in  all  South 
America.  At  last,  after  climbing  two  gigantic  ranges  of 
mountains  in  the  course  of  300  miles,  we  come  to  Lake 
Titicaca.  It  would  seem  as  though  nature  intended  to 


THE  SWITZERLAND  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  123 


put  every  barrier  of  land  and  water  between  Bolivia  and 
the  outside  world. 

To  be  sure,  a  great  lake  is  not  of  itself  a  barrier,  but  a 
link  between  states  and  nations.  But  when  we  remember 
that  every  timber  and  steel  plate  and  bolt  and  piece  of 
machinery  to  construct  the  boats  that  sail  this  lake,  must 
be  brought  from  Europe  or  America,  and  toilsomely  tran¬ 
sported  over  some  of  the  highest  mountains  in  the  world, 
we  see  that  a  great  lake,  more  than  the  length  of  Lake 
Erie,  lying  in  the  way  of  traffic,  is  at  first  a  most  seri¬ 
ous  barrier. 

Let  us  take  this  journey  from  Mollendo  on  the  sea  into 
the  heart  of  Bolivia.  After  being  tossed  ashore  in  a  big 
row-boat,  over  the  tremendous  swells,  we  are  glad  to  find 
that  there  is  a  train  about  to  start  up  the  mountains. 
There  is  nothing  to  detain  us  in  the  hot,  dusty,  stuffy 
Peruvian  town  of  Mollendo,  and  we  board  the  train  that 
daily  winds  its  way  among  the  peaks  of  the  Andes  to 
Arequipa,  a  sort  of  half-way  station  to  Bolivia,  where  all 
the  trains  tie  up  for  the  night. 

Our  train  consists  of  two  passenger  cars  and  a  baggage 
car,  built  on  the  American  plan.  The  second  class  car 
has  no  windows,  but  is  all  open  at  the  sides,  except  for 
flopping  curtains,  that  may  be  drawn  down  in  case  of 
rain  or  snow  which  are  very  common  on  the  higher 
passes.  The  one  first  class  coach  looks  as  though  it  had 
done  duty  forty  years  ago  on  a  second  class  American  rail¬ 
road  ;  it  is  shabby  and  dirty,  and,  when  it  rains,  it  leaks 
at  every  pore,  so  that  the  passengers  have  to  put  up  their 
umbrellas  to  keep  from  being  soaked.  The  engines, 
however,  seem  new  and  of  a  good  pattern,  and  were 
recently  built  by  the  Rogers  Company  of  Wilmington, 
Delaware. 

For  the  first  hundred  miles  or  so  there  is  no  danger  of 
a  drenching,  for  it  never  rains  on  this  arid  coast,  as  the 


) 


124  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 

sterile,  parched  mountains,  through  which  we  wend  our 
way,  declare.  Their  very  barrenness  is  impressive,  it  is 
so  absolute  and  uncompromising.  Not  a  bit  of  sage 
brush  or  grease  wood,  even.  Now  and  then  a  prickly 
cactus  shows  its  head  and  builds  itself  up  like  the  pipes 
of  an  organ,  but,  for  many,  many  miles,  even  this  plant  of 
the  desert  cannot  grow. 

Soon  the  engine  begins  to  puff  and  labour,  and  we  feel 
that  we  are  rising  in  the  world.  In  less  than  twenty 
miles  we  mount  more  than  3,000  feet,  and  the  ascent  is 
but  just  begun.  Yawning  gullies  are  on  one  side,  tower¬ 
ing  peaks  on  the  other.  There  are  no  tunnels  on  this 
line,  or  at  least  only  one  in  300  miles,  but  the  road  winds 
around  the  head  of  all  the  ravines  that  cut  into  the 
mountainsides,  and  skirts  the  edge  of  the  Andes,  often 
hanging  to  the  narrowest  shelf  of  rock,  while  a  thousand 
feet  below  is — destruction. 

But  it  is  not  all  bitter  barrenness.  Way  down  in  that 
cleft  of  the  mountains,  so  far  down  that  the  eye  can  just 
perceive  it,  is  a  ribbon  of  green,  and  if  we  could  get  there 
we  should  find  a  narrow  valley  clothed  with  the  heaviest 
alfalfa,  where  grapes  and  figs  and  oranges  and  pome¬ 
granates  grow,  all  of  which  are  brought  for  sale  to  the 
stations  above  by  slatternly  Peruvian  women,  and  un¬ 
speakably  dirty  Peruvian  boys. 

At  a  height  of  about  7,500  feet  a  wonderful  scene  bursts 
upon  the  eye.  The  valley  of  the  Chili  River  widens  into 
a  broad  expanse,  green  with  Indian  corn,  wheat,  barley, 
potatoes  and  alfalfa,  and  well  up  in  this  valley  is  the  city 
of  Arequipa,  with  its  imposing  cathedral,  its  many 
churches,  and  public  buildings,  and  above  all,  its  Har¬ 
vard  Observatory,  while  ragged,  rugged  Chachani  and 
symmetrical  Misti  dominate  the  city,  as  Table  Mountain 
dominates  Cape  Town.  Both  of  these  magnificent  moun¬ 
tains  are  nearly  20,000  feet  high,  and  Misti  is  as  regular 


THE  SWITZERLAND  OF  SOTJTH  AMERICA  125* 


in  its  conical  beauty  as  Fujiyama,  which  it  very  much 
resembles,  though  it  is  fully  6,000  feet  higher. 

But  we  will  not  stop  in  Arequipa  for  we  have  not  yet 
nearly  reached  the  border  of  Bolivia.  The  next  morning 
our  train  pushes  on  again,  around  other  fathomless 
ravines,  skirting  other  sky-piercing  mountains,  always 
upon  the  edge  of  a  tremendous  precipice,  except  where 
the  road  crosses  a  high  plateau,  between  two  ranges  of  the 
Andes. 

One  curious  feature  of  the  plains  of  the  lower  Andes  is 
the  travelling  sand-hills.  The  prevailing  colour  of  the 
mountains  is  a  rich  reddish  brown,  but  these  sand-hills, 
apparently  blowing  up  from  the  sea,  are  composed  of  fine, 
white,  drifting  sand.  As  the  wind  drives  the  sand  up 
the  hillock,  it  falls  down  on  the  other  side,  forming  a 
well-defined  crescent,  with  the  two  horns  pointing  away 
from  the  prevailing  direction  of  the  wind.  These  travel¬ 
ling  sand-hills,  which  are  sometimes  twenty  feet  high,  and 
contain  thousands  of  tons  of  sand,  move  along  with  a 
steady  march  in  one  direction,  at  the  rate  of  several 
inches  a  day.  No  obstacle  can  stop  them.  When  they 
come  to  a  railway  track  all  the  line  men  cannot  stay  their 
progress,  and  either  the  hills  must  be  shovelled  off  by 
many  hours  or  days  of  work,  or  the  track  must  be  taken 
up  and  laid  on  the  other  side,  for  the  moving  sand  is 
more  resistless  than  an  army  with  banners. 

Up,  up,  ever  up,  the  railway  climbs.  At  last  after 
some  twenty  hours  of  steady  ascent  from  Mollendo,  the 
highest  pass,  14,666  feet  above  the  sea,  is  reached.  We 
are  nearly  at  the  height  of  the  top  of  Mt.  Blanc,  but  the 
snow  line  in  these  tropics  fifteen  degrees  from  the  equator, 
is  2,000  feet  higher  still.  On  all  sides  are  these  mag¬ 
nificent  snow  mountains,  some  of  the  highest  in  the  world. 

At  a  height  of  about  10,000  feet  even  the  cactus  gets 
discouraged  and  only  some  tussocky  grass,  made  possible 


126  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


by  the  rains  which  are  frequent  here,  and  a  kind  of 
resinous  moss  much  used  for  fuel,  are  found.  But  on 
this  poor  herbage  great  flocks  of  sheep,  llamas,  and 
alpacas  thrive,  and  occasionally  a  yellow  vicuna  scampers 
away  as  the  train  approaches. 

The  eye  gets  satiated  with  mountains  after  two  days  of 
such  travel.  It  can  take  in  no  more  Alpine  wonders. 
We  thread  a  precipitous  mountainside  without  a  shud¬ 
der,  and  calmly  look  down  into  an  abysmal  ravine  on 
either  side  without  any  emotion. 

As  we  approach  Bolivia  the  railway  descends  some 
2,000  feet  until  it  comes  to  Lake  Titicaca,  some  12,500 
feet  above  the  sea,  a  lake  which  is  divided  about  evenly 
between  Peru  and  Bolivia.  In  many  respects  this  is  the 
most  wonderful  lake  in  the  world,  as  it  is  certainly  the 
highest  in  altitude  of  any  of  the  great  lakes.  Think  of 
Lake  Geneva,  increased  in  size  many  times,  until  it  is  as 
large  as  all  the  Swiss  lakes  together,  raised  nearly  two 
miles  and  a  half  in  the  air,  and  surrounded  by  peaks 
three  times  the  height  of  the  Eocher  de  Naye  or  the  Dent 
du  Midi,  and  one  has  some  conception  of  this  enormous 
reservoir  among  the  Andes.  This  great  lake,  though  it 
receives  the  waters  of  twenty  rivers,  has  but  one  outlet, 
the  sluggish  Desaguardo  river,  through  which  part  of  its 
waters  flow  into  Lake  Poopo,  another  very  large  body  of 
water,  that  lies  at  a  somewhat  lower  level.  But  where 
do  the  waters  go  then  ?  No  one  can  tell,  for  Poopo  has 
apparently  no  outlet.  Probably  an  underground  river 
carries  off  the  surplus  waters  of  both  lakes  into  the 
Pacific,  300  miles  away,  for  it  is  said  that  a  certain  kind 
of  small  fish  found  in  Lake  Titicaca  and  Lake  Poopo  are 
also  found  in  the  ocean  opposite  these  highland  seas,  and 
nowhere  else. 

Two  or  three  fairly  comfortable  steamers  of  consider¬ 
able  size  ply  the  waters  of  Titicaca,  and  the  journey  from 


THE  SWITZERLAND  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  127 


one  end  to  the  other,  though  only  120  miles  in  length, 
takes  a  night  and  half  a  day. 

The  natives  navigate  a  curious  craft  called  a  balsa,  a 
small  sail  boat  made  of  coarse  rushes  that  grow  abun¬ 
dantly  on  the  shores  of  the  lake.  These  reed  boats  will 
withstand  the  heavy  seas  which  frequently  roll  against 
the  shores  of  Titicaca,  but  after  a  few  weeks  become 
water-logged,  and  have  to  be  hauled  up  for  repairs, — i.  e., 
to  be  dried  in  the  sun,  thus  regaining  their  buoyancy. 

We  crossed  the  lake  for  the  first  time  on  the  Coy  a,  a 
steamer  built  in  England  and  transported  in  small  sec¬ 
tions  to  these  almost  inaccessible  fastnesses  of  the  Andes, 
and  here  put  together,  to  sail  the  cold  waters  of  this 
mountain  lake.  In  Peruvian  revolutions  the  Coya  has 
witnessed  exciting  scenes,  and  contains  many  a  bullet 
hole  to  show  where  the  contending  factions  have  fought 
for  her  possession,  and  many  a  blood  stain,  it  is  said, 
where  one  side  or  the  other  has  bit  the  dust,  or  rather  the 
dirt,  on  her  deck.  There  is  plenty  of  dirt  to  bite,  surely, 
in  any  part  of  the  boat,  and  the  galley  and  the  cook  are 
probably  the  two  dirtiest  objects  inanimate  and  animate, 
to  be  found  in  Peru  or  Bolivia.  The  Inca  is  a  larger, 
cleaner,  newer  boat,  which  also  plies  these  waters.  May 
it  always  be  the  fortune  of  my  readers  to  find  her  waiting 
for  them  when  they  essay  to  cross  Titicaca. 

Most  attractive  are  the  shores  of  Titicaca  on  a  bright 
summer’s  day.  In  the  middle  of  the  lake  we  pass  the 
famous  Titicaca  island,  where  the  great  God  of  the  Incas, 
the  first  emperor,  had  his  traditional  birth,  and  where 
are  the  remains  of  an  enormous  and  most  interesting 
temple.  The  shores,  on  either  side,  are  well  cultivated 
in  many  places,  and  terraces  reaching  far  up  on  the  hill¬ 
side  attest  the  industry  and  skill  of  the  ancient  Incas. 
From  this  enormous  plain,  surrounding  Titicaca,  came 
the  great  conquering  race  of  Bolivia,  which,  700  years 


128  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


ago,  swept  north  over  the  table-lands  of  Peru  and 
Ecuador,  carrying  all  before  them,  until  they  were  the 
acknowledged  rulers  of  South  America,  building  their 
cities,  their  palaces,  and  their  temples  whose  ruins  are 
still  the  wonder  of  the  world. 

On  a  bright  day  in  the  rainy  season  the  shores  of 
Titicaca  are  peculiarly  attractive.  The  fresh  vegetation 
of  livid  green  contrasts  with  belts  of  red  soil  giving  a 
rich  and  varied  hue  to  the  nearer  hills,  while  the  great 
mountains,  Illimani  and  Sorato,  always  snow- clad,  rising 
twenty-two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and  ten  thousand 
feet  above  the  lake,  seem  to  guard  the  ancient  possessions 
of  the  Incas,  with  their  impenetrable  ribs  of  rock  and 
ice. 

On  the  Bolivian  side  of  the  lake  we  take  the  railway 
again  for  a  ride  of  sixty  miles  across  a  gradually  descend¬ 
ing  plain  to  La  Paz,  the  seat  of  government  of  this  moun¬ 
tain  republic.  Past  miserable  little  mud  villages  the 
train  crawls,  past  flocks  of  sheep  and  llamas  guarded  by 
dirty  shepherds,  drenched  by  frequent  rains,  past  plowed 
fields  turned  up  with  the  same  kind  of  a  rude  crooked 
stick  which  the  Incas  used  a  half  century  ago,  until  the 
most  surprising  sight  of  all  our  journey  breaks  upon  our 
view. 

Nothing  is  to  be  seen  for  miles  and  miles  but  this  vast 
level  plain,  some  ten  thousand  square  miles  in  extent, 
with  the  great  mountains  of  Bolivia  beyond,  twenty  of 
which  rise  to  an  elevation  of  nearly,  if  not  quite,  20,000 
feet.  Suddenly  we  come  to  the  edge  of  what  seems  to  be 
a  deep,  wide  crater,  but  is  really  a  great  hollow  in  the 
plateau,  made  by  the  erosion  of  water,  and  there,  looking 
down  into  this  vast  hole  in  the  earth,  twelve  hundred 
feet  below,  we  see  the  city  of  La  Paz,  with  its  red -tiled 
roofs,  its  great  churches,  public  buildings,  plazas  and 
market  places.  Nothing  in  all  my  travels  has  ever  struck 


THE  SWITZERLAND  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  129 


me  with  more  amazement,  so  sudden  and  unexpected  is 
the  sight  of  the  great,  ragged  valley,  in  which  nestles  a 
city  of  70,000  people,  wholly  hidden  from  view,  until  one 
peers  over  the  edge  of  the  sheltering  cliff. 

A  medern  American  trolley  car  takes  one  down  the 
side  of  the  crater,  by  many  zigzags  into  the  city,  which 
is  the  real,  though  not  the  nominal,  capital  of  Bolivia, 
the  latest  republic  of  South  America  to  feel  the  throb  of 
modern  life,  but  one  that  is  waking  up  with  marvellous 
rapidity,  one  that  has  resources  unequalled  by  any  coun¬ 
try  of  its  size  in  the  world — a  country  that  with  a  good 
government  and  an  untrammelled,  enlightened  religious 
life,  doubtless  has  a  future  commensurate  with  the  heights 
of  its  mountains,  the  depths  of  its  valleys,  and  the  extent 
of  its  vast  plateaus. 


XVI 


THE  HERMIT  REPUBLIC  OF  THE  ANDES 

The  Worst  Seaport  in  the  World — Reaching  the  Outer  World— Bolivia 
and  Utah— The  “Seat  of  Government”  and  the  Capital— Bolivia’s 
Immense  Territory — Her  Magnificent  Distances — Her  Vast  Resources 
—Invigorating  Coca  Leaves — Chinchona  Bark  and  the  Quinine  Pill — 
“  A  Table  of  Silver  on  Legs  of  Gold  ” — The  Famous  Potosi  Mine- 
Silver,  Tin  and  Copper— The  Gentle  Llama,  the  Camel  of  the  Andes 
— Religious  Liberty  in  Bolivia. 

IN  some  respects  Bolivia  is  the  most  interesting  Re¬ 
public  in  South  America,  though,  at  the  same 
time,  it  is  one  of  the  poorest  and  decidedly  the  most 
inaccessible. 

Far  more  remote  from  modern  civilization  than  Corea, 
the  so-called  Hermit  Nation,  which  has  many  fine  sea¬ 
ports,  Bolivia,  after  the  war  with  Chile  in  1879,  lost  her 
little  strip  of  seacost,  which,  at  the  best,  was  so  remote 
from  her  centres  of  population  and  wealth  as  to  be  of 
little  service  to  her. 

The  only  communication  she  has  with  the  outside 
world  as  we  have  said  is  over  a  single  track  railroad  line 
running  from  Lake  Titicaca  through  Peru  for  300  miles 
over  lofty  Andean  passes,  14,500  feet  above  the  sea  ;  or 
by  a  still  longer  and  more  difficult  narrow-guage  road 
from  Oruro  on  the  table-lands  to  Antofagasta  on  the 
Chilean  shore. 

Two  or  three  passenger  trains  a  week,  consisting  of 
two  cars  each,  and  a  few  short  freight  trains  every  week, 
are  all  that  surmount  the  tremendous  Andean  heights,  to 
reach  the  mere  outskirts  of  Bolivia,  whose  rich  centre 
has  never  yet  been  pierced  by  rail  or  carriage  road. 

130 


THE  HEEMIT  REPUBLIC  OF  THE  ANDES  131 


Unlike  Corea,  however,  Bolivia  is  not  a  Hermit  Nation 
by  choice.  Her  isolation  has  been  thrust  upon  her  by 
nature  and  by  the  disastrous  Chilean  war,  and  now  her 
people  are  doing  all  they  can  to  remedy  this  remoteness 
and  to  bring  her  rich  plateaus  and  richer  mountains 
nearer  to  the  rest  of  the  family  of  nations.  With  a 
liberal  and  progressive  and  apparently  stable  government 
in  power,  in  spite  of  enormous  difficulties,  Bolivia  will 
doubtless  succeed  in  this  great  undertaking. 

To  picture  Bolivia  to  yourself,  imagine  the  state  of 
Utah  quadrupled  in  size,  raised  to  twice  its  present 
height  above  the  sea,  and  much  of  it  spread  out  over  a 
vast  plateau,  surrounded  by  mountains  that  rise  to  a 
height  of  20,000  feet,  while  an  occasional  peak  pierces 
the  sky  at  an  altitude  of  22,000  or  even  23,000  feet. 
Imagine  the  Great  Salt  Lake  freshened  and  increased  in 
size  a  dozen  times  into  a  lake  half  as  large  as  Ontario, 
and  you  have  Lake  Titicaca.  Imagine  Salt  Lake  City 
dropped  down  into  an  immense  crater  1,200  feet  below 
the  summit  of  the  surrounding  plain,  and  you  have  an 
idea  of  La  Paz,  the  seat  of  government  of  Bolivia.  I 
have  said  “seat  of  government”  advisedly,  for  La  Paz 
is  not  the  legal  capital,  though  the  President  of  the 
Republic,  the  ministers  of  state,  and  all  the  foreign 
ministers  live  here.  The  Congress  of  the  Republic 
convenes  here,  and  all  official  business,  except  that  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  is  transacted  here.  Sucr6  is  the  legal 
capital,  but  only  in  name,  no  government  business,  ex¬ 
cept  that  of  the  Supreme  Court,  being  transacted  there. 

In  the  last  Revolution,  some  dozen  years  ago,  the  La 
Paz  faction  triumphed,  and  one  of  the  spoils  that  be¬ 
longed  to  the  victors  was  that  the  seat  of  government 
should  be  theirs,  while  the  empty  name  of  the  legal 
capital  went  to  Sucre.  Before  this,  the  capital  had  been 
a  peripatetic  affair,  moving  from  La  Paz  to  Sucre,  then 


132  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


to  Cochabamba  or  to  Oruro,  or  wherever  the  fancy  of  the 
ruling  faction  might  take  it.  But  during  the  last  ten 
years  Bolivia  has  won  a  new  lease  of  life  and  prosperity, 
as  we  have  said,  under  the  enlightened  presidency  of  Gen¬ 
eral  Pando,  continued  by  President  Montt,  who  now 
holds  the  reigns  of  government.  Under  him  the  Hermit 
Republic  of  the  Andes  is  emerging  from  her  isolation, 
and  taking  an  honourable,  if  still  somewhat  inconspicuous 
place  among  the  nations. 

Bolivia  has  many  things  in  her  favour, — her  immense 
territory,  for  one  thing.  No  nation  can  become  truly 
great  that  has  not  room  for  expansion  either  within  her 
immediate  borders  or  her  colouies.  Bolivia  has  room 
and  to  spare.  The  third  largest  in  size  of  the  South 
American  Republics,  surpassed  only  by  Brazil  and  the 
Argentine  Republic,  no  country  in  Europe  is  as  large, 
with  the  exception  of  Russia. 

Bolivia  extends  for  nearly  1,200  miles  from  north  to 
south,  and  almost  700  from  east  to  west.  In  all  this  vast 
extent  of  territory  there  are  only  about  1, 600, 000  people, 
a  population  much  less  than  Connecticut’ s  to  cover  a  ter¬ 
ritory  larger  than  France,  Belgium  and  Holland  com¬ 
bined.  The  white  people  of  all  Bolivia  would  not  make 
a  city  as  large  as  Providence,  however  liberal  one  might 
be  in  construing  the  word  “white.”  More  than  half  the 
people  are  full  blooded  Indians,  degenerate  descendants 
of  the  valiant  Incas.  In  number  of  inhabitants  to  the 
square  mile,  the  Hermit  Republic  ranks  the  lowest  of  all 
the  nations  of  the  world,  having  at  the  last  census  only 
ninety-nine  one-hundredths  of  a  person  to  every  square 
mile,  while  Tripoli,  which  comes  next  in  this  respect,  has 
one  full  inhabitant  to  the  mile. 

But  Bolivia  is  a  country  of  vast  resources  as  well  as  of 
magnificent  distances — resources  the  very  surface  of  which 
have  hardly  been  scratched  as  yet.  Its  different  climates 


THE  HEBMIT  REPUBLIC  OF  THE  ANDES  133 


at  varying  altitudes  make  every  agricultural  product 
possible,  while  its  mountains  contain  every  known 
mineral. 

From  an  elevation  a  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  in  the 
Amazonian  region,  to  the  plateaus  of  Titicaca,  13, 000  feet 
above  the  sea,  the  country  extends,  and  at  those  varying 
heights,  tropical,  subtropical,  temperate,  subarctic  and 
arctic  zones  are  found,  and  everything,  from  rubber,  cof¬ 
fee,  sugar-cane,  and  coca,  to  the  hardiest  grains  and 
vegetables,  will  thrive.  Several  of  these  vegetable  and 
mineral  products  are  so  interesting  for  various  reasons 
that  they  deserve  some  paragraphs  of  special  description. 

Coca,  for  instance,  the  plant  from  whose  leaves  cocaine 
is  extracted,  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  products  of 
Bolivia.  In  no  other  country  does  it  flourish  so  well.  It 
is  a  shrub  growing  from  two  to  eight  feet  high,  and  is 
cultivated  in  the  temperate  regions  of  the  western  plateaus. 
The  third  year  after  sprouting,  a  coca  plantation  begins 
to  bear,  and  yields  fifty  per  cent,  annually  on  the  original 
cost,  and  will  last  for  thirty  or  forty  years.  The  leaves, 
which  are  small  and  oblong  in  shape,  are  stripped  off  the 
shrub  and  dried  flat,  and  are  then  brought  to  La  Paz  in 
large  bags,  where  they  are  peddled  out  to  the  natives  by 
the  pennyworth,  or  sent  off  to  France  to  be  manufactured 
into  the  cocaine  of  commerce. 

As  used  by  the  Indians,  it  seems  to  be  a  harmless 
stimulant,  for  they  simply  chew  the  dried  leaves,  some¬ 
times  mingled  with  a  little  lime  stone,  and  you  often  see 
an  Indian  on  the  street  of  La  Paz  with  his  cheek  bulging 
out  on  the  side  as  though  he  had  a  big  internal  wen. 
Thus  used,  coca  leaves  are  said  to  be  slow,  steady  and  in¬ 
vigorating  in  their  action,  enabling  a  labourer  to  walk  for 
long  distances  with  a  heavy  pack  on  his  back,  or  to  work 
all  day  without  food.  The  results  of  cocaine,  when  used 
unintelligently  as  a  drug,  are  deplorable  enough,  and  it 


134  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


is  a  question  whether  the  Bolivian  coca  plantations  are 
more  of  a  curse  or  a  blessing  to  mankind. 

Chinchona  bark,  from  which  comes  the  quinine  of  the 
drug  store,  is  another  important  product  of  Bolivia,  about 
whose  benefit  to  mankind  there  can  be  no  such  question. 
Bolivia  is  the  natural  home  of  the  chinchona  tree  and  the 
very  best  quality  is  raised  here.  There  are  said  to  be 
6,000,000  chinchona  trees  in  the  country,  and  to  every  one 
who  has  taken  a  two-grain  quinine  pill,  they  are  of  in¬ 
terest. 

They  grow  on  rough  mountainsides  a  thousand  or 
two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  trees  are  raised 
from  seed  sprouted  in  a  hothouse.  In  about  five  years 
the  trees  attain  a  height  of  twelve  or  fifteen  feet,  and  can 
then  be  peeled  for  commerce.  They  have  slender,  smooth 
trunks,  and  glossy  leaves,  not  unlike  an  orange  tree. 
Two  or  three  times  a  year  narrow  strips  of  bark  from  one 
foot  to  ten  feet  long  are  peeled  off  and  thrown  upon  a 
brick  platform  to  dry.  They  curl  up  like  cinnamon  bark, 
and  after  being  dried  for  two  or  three  days  are  packed  in 
rawhides  and  shipped  from  Mollendo  in  Peru  or  Antofa¬ 
gasta  in  Chile,  to  all  parts  of  the  world.  A  year  or  two 
after  the  bark  has  been  peeled  off  the  tree,  it  grows  again, 
and  the  process  can  be  repeated  almost  indefinitely. 

Sugar,  coffee,  of  an  excellent  quality,  rice,  and  indeed 
almost  all  products  of  the  tropical  or  temperate  zones  are 
raised  in  Bolivia,  and  a  walk  through  the  markets  of  La 
Paz,  Oruro,  or  any  other  large  town,  shows  the  abundance 
of  fruit  that  the  country  boasts ;  oranges,  bananas, 
peaches,  grapes,  pears  and  apples  of  poor  quality,  cher¬ 
ries,  grenadillas,  avocado  pears,  and  some  fruits  and 
vegetables  that  one  rarely  sees  outside  of  Bolivia,  are 
found  in  abundance,  brought  to  the  cold,  arid  table-lauds 
from  the  warm  valleys  less  than  thirty  miles  away. 

The  mineral  products  of  the  Hermit  Bepublic  are 


THE  HERMIT  REPUBLIC  OF  THE  ANDES  135 


quite  as  numerous  and  interesting  as  its  flora.  An  old 
writer  has  described  Bolivia  as  “  a  table  of  silver  on  legs 
of  gold,”  and  this  poetical  description  is  scarcely  an  ex¬ 
aggeration.  It  contains  some  of  the  most  famous  silver 
mines  in  the  world,  and  with  all  their  enormous  produc¬ 
tion,  they  are  far  from  exhausted.  Potosi  Mountain,  for 
instance,  is  the  very  synonym  for  silver.  In  fifty  years, 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  this  mountain 
yielded  in  taxes  to  the  Spanish  crown  three  billions  and 
a  quarter  of  dollars,  and  as  Spain  mercifully  took  only 
one-fifth  of  the  product  of  these  mines  in  taxes,  they  must 
have  produced  sixteen  billions  of  Bolivianos  (the  national 
dollar)  in  half  a  century,  to  say  nothing  of  what  was 
smuggled  out  of  the  country.  Potosi  is  still  producing 
silver,  though  to  no  very  large  extent,  and  there  are  said 
to  be  ten  thousand  abandoned  silver  mines  in  the  country. 
Modern  machinery  and  methods  of  mining  and  reducing 
the  ore,  will  doubtless  in  the  future  make  silver  mining 
in  Bolivia  as  profitable  as  ever,  for  the  silver  mountains 
still  contain  fabulous  treasure. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  tin  and  copper  have  been  dis¬ 
covered  in  such  large  quantities  of  late,  and  of  such  a  high 
grade  that  they  have  decidedly  eclipsed  the  silver  inter¬ 
est.  In  tin  Bolivia  is  especially  rich.  For  250  miles, 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  Lake  Titicaca,  to  the  southern 
frontier,  tin  is  found,  and  these  mines  completely  throw 
the  mines  of  Cornwall  in  the  shade,  and  even  rival  the  tin 
deposits  of  the  Straits  Settlements.  In  many  places  the 
metal  is  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  pure,  and  both  the  tin 
and  copper  ore  is  so  rich  that  it  can  be  transported  for 
scores  of  miles  on  mule  back,  for  hundreds  more  by  rail, 
for  still  other  thousands  by  sea,  before  it  is  smelted  in 
Europe  or  America,  and  yet  be  mined  at  a  profit,  in  spite 
of  all  these  enormous  transportation  charges.  Perhaps  in 
these  days  of  high  prices  for  the  metal,  copper  is  the  most 


136  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


important  mineral  product  of  Bolivia,  for  it  is  found  in 
immense  quantities  and  of  remarkable  purity. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  the  vegetable, 
mineral  or  animal  products  of  the  Hermit  Eepublic  are 
most  interesting.  The  possibilities  in  live  stock  raising 
are  almost  unlimited  on  the  vast  uplands  in  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  of  Lake  Titicaca,  where  sheep,  cattle,  horses, 
llamas,  alpacas  and  vicunas  thrive.  Of  all  these  animals 
the  llama  is  by  far  the  most  interesting  and  important. 
Wherever  you  go  in  Bolivia  this  attractive  and  gentle 
creature  is  in  evidence.  Look  out  of  the  car  window  and 
you  are  likely  to  see  a  herd  of  them  scampering  away 
from  the  train.  Take  a  lonely  trail  through  the  moun¬ 
tains,  and  thousands  of  those  little  burden  bearers  will 
pass  you  in  single  file  in  the  course  of  the  day.  Walk 
through  the  streets  of  La  Paz,  Sucre,  or  Oruro,  and  every 
few  minutes  you  will  pass  a  flock  of  these  animals  with 
ears  pricked  forward,  inquisitively  and  timorously,  their 
long  graceful  necks  stretched  out,  and  their  big  liquid 
eyes  full  of  fear  and  wonder  at  the  unaccustomed  city 
sights. 

They  are  a  little  larger  than  a  donkey,  and  are  of  almost 
all  shades,  buff,  black,  white,  reddish,  and  mixed  colours. 
They  partake  of  the  nature  of  the  camel  and  the  sheep, 
for  their  wool  is  good  for  clothing  and  their  backs  are 
easily  bent  to  the  burden.  They  will  plod  along  at  the 
rate  of  fifteen  miles  a  day  for  weeks,  with  a  load  of  one 
hundred  pounds  tied  to  their  backs,  never  asking  for  a 
drink  of  water,  and  content  to  board  themselves  on  the 
grass  and  moss  and  leaves  they  can  find  by  the  roadside. 
Their  only  vice  is  an  unpleasant  habit  of  spitting  an  evil 
smelling  saliva  when  provoked  or  frightened,  but  even 
this  habit  they  indulge  in  but  seldom,  and  on  the  whole 
are  among  the  most  gentle,  attractive  and  beautiful  ani¬ 
mals  I  have  ever  seen.  They  are  almost  as  useful  as  the 


THE  HERMIT  REPUBLIC  OF  THE  ANDES  137 


reindeer  to  the  Laps,  for  tlie  flesh  is  good  for  food,  the 
wool  for  clothing,  the  hide  for  footwear,  and  the  bones 
for  looms  and  spindles.  A  llama  can  be  bought  for  five 
dollars  in  gold  and  is  well  worth  the  price,  one  would 
think. 

The  vicuna  is  another  animal  peculiar  to  the  uplands 
of  South  America.  It  looks  not  unlike  a  llama,  but  is 
really,  I  believe,  a  species  of  antelope.  It  has  never  been 
tamed,  but  its  skin  is  prized  for  the  softness  and  beauty 
of  its  furry  wool,  from  which  elegant  rugs  are  made. 
Bolivia  is  also  the  natural  home  of  the  alpaca,  but  un¬ 
fortunately  little  attention  is  given  to  its  development, 
and  the  exportation  of  alpaca  wool  has  fallen  to  almost 
nothing. 

Rich  as  Bolivia  is  in  all  natural  products,  the  problem 
still  remains,  how  to  utilize  them  and  how  to  transport 
these  riches  to  the  outside  world.  To  this  problem  the 
government  is  addressing  itself  with  vigour  and  intelli¬ 
gence.  Railroads  are  being  projected  in  several  direc¬ 
tions  ; — to  connect  with  the  head  waters  of  the  Amazon, 
to  reach  the  Pacific  through  Peru  and  Chile  at  Mollendo 
and  Antofagasta,  and  to  connect  with  the  Argentine  rail¬ 
road  in  that  great  republic,  thus  affording  another  outlet 
to  the  Atlantic. 

For  the  manufactures  of  Bolivia,  little  can  be  said. 
They  are  confined  to  a  few  rude  native  products,  and 
almost  everything  that  the  higher  classes  use  is  brought 
in  from  Europe  or  America. 

The  school  system  of  Bolivia  is  still  in  a  primitive  and 
rather  chaotic  condition,  but  the  government  is  earnestly 
turning  its  attention  in  this  direction.  To  Rev.  Mr. 
Harrington,  a  Methodist  missionary  from  the  United 
States,  the  government  has  given  a  subvention  of  $35,000 
to  look  after  the  schools  of  Oruro,  and,  if  he  succeeds  in 
this  undertaking,  as  he  undoubtedly  will,  for  he  is  an 


138  THE  CONTINENT  OP  OPPOETUNITY 


able  and  experienced  educator,  the  whole  school  system 
of  Bolivia  may  be  put  in  his  charge. 

In  August,  1906,  religious  liberty  was  proclaimed  as 
the  law  of  the  land  with  only  two  dissenting  votes.  Bolivia 
has  evidently  started  upon  a  new  career  and  a  happier 
one  than  she  has  ever  known.  Foreigners  and  foreign 
capital  are  pouring  into  the  country.  The  American 
colony  in  La  Paz  has  more  than  trebled  within  three 
years.  New  routes  are  being  explored,  new  mines  are 
being  opened  up,  new  agricultural  regions  are  being  de¬ 
veloped,  the  immensely  rich  rubber  country  at  the  head¬ 
waters  of  the  Amazon  is  being  exploited,  highways  are 
being  built,  and,  as  I  have  said,  railways  projected  in 
various  directions. 

Bolivia  is  a  country  without  a  debt,  without  a  tax  on 
property,  all  her  resources  being  raised  by  customs  duties. 
She  has  millions  of  dollars  in  her  treasury,  the  price  of 
territory  sold  recently  to  Brazil,  to  be  used  for  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  railway  system  both  towards  the  At¬ 
lantic  and  the  Pacific.  When  these  outlets  to  the  outer 
world  are  completed,  as  doubtless  they  will  be  within  a 
half  dozen  years,  Bolivia  will  no  longer  be  the  Hermit 
Eepublic  of  South  America. 


XYII 


OUR  WINDOW  IN  LA  PAZ 

In  tha  Gran  Central  Hotel — Twelve  Thousand  Feet  Above  the  Sea — A 
Scene  of  Desolate  Grandeur — Glowing  Colours — The  Headwaters  of 
the  Amazon — Female  Flower  Gardens— No  Bace  Suicide — The  Poncho 
— Human  Burden  Bearers — Donkeys  and  Llamas — Frozen  Potatoes 
— The  Beggars  Coming  to  Town — More  Commonplace  Sights. 

OUE  window  in  La  Paz  affords  no  ordinary  out¬ 
look.  I  venture  to  say  there  is  not  another  in 
all  the  world  from  which  such  sights  can  be 
viewed,  except  perhaps  other  windows  in  this  same 
Bolivian  capital  from  which  I  am  writing  this  chapter. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  no  light  task  to  get  to  our  win¬ 
dow.  To  be  sure,  it  is  only  in  the  third  story  of  the 
“Gran  Central  Hotel,”  as  this  very  poor  and  very  ex¬ 
pensive  hostelry  is  grandiloquently  named,  and  one  has 
only  to  mount  two  flights  of  stairs  to  reach  our  window  j 
but  those  two  flights  make  the  heart  palpitate  and  the 
breath  come  short,  for  our  window  is  just  twelve  thousand 
feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  air  is  so  rare  and  contains  so 
little  oxygen  that  it  makes  even  the  hardened  native  puff 
to  mount  the  stairs,  and  the  “gringo”  (any  foreigner) 
has  to  stop  at  least  once  on  the  way  up,  to  regain  his  lost 
wind. 

But  take  three  or  four  short,  panting  breaths,  and  then 
one  or  two  long  ones  to  fill  the  lungs  once  more,  and  you 
are  all  right  for  the  second  flight,  which  leads  you  to  our 
window.  It  is  worth  the  exertion,  for  it  is  a  wonderful 
view  which  meets  the  eye  when  you  reach  it. 

Directly  in  front  of  our  window  lies  the  Alto  or  edge  of 
the  table-land  a  thousand  feet  above  us  ;  and  we  see  that, 

139 


140  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


high  as  we  are  above  the  sea,  we  are  yet  down  in  a  tre¬ 
mendous  valley  scooped  out  by  the  action  of  water, — a 
great,  broad  basin  hollowed  out  of  the  vast  plateau  of 
Bolivia,  which  is  five  hundred  miles  broad  between  the 
ranges  of  the  Andes,  and  nearly  twice  as  long  as  it  is 
broad. 

The  sides  of  our  basin  slope  steeply  up  to  the  Alto  on 
either  side  ;  and,  since  this  is  the  rainy  season,  the  red  soil 
is  streaked  in  places  with  green,  where  the  Indians  raise 
a  little  afalfa  or  barley  or  a  few  potatoes. 

But  for  the  most  part  it  is  a  scene  of  desolate  grandeur 
that  we  see  from  our  window.  It  is  so  high  that  only  the 
hardiest  plants  thrive,  and  the  trees  are  stunted  and  few. 
The  great  basin  of  La  Paz  has  been  cut  up  by  innumera¬ 
ble  floods  into  many  earth  monuments,  composed  largely 
of  stones  and  small  boulders,  many  of  them  as  sharp  as 
the  aiguilles  of  Switzerland  or  the  needles  on  the  coast  of 
the  Isle  of  Wight. 

Some  one  has  said  that  man  has  built  the  ramparts  of 
every  other  walled  city,  but  God  built  the  walls  of  La 
Paz.  And  so  He  did.  He  built  them  more  than  a  thou¬ 
sand  feet  high  on  every  side  but  one,  and  on  that  side  He 
left  but  a  narrow  gateway  through  which  the  people  can 
get  out  into  the  rich  and  fertile  lowlands,  or  rather  lower 
lands,  that  lie  a  day’s  journey  from  La  Paz  towards  the 
Pacific. 

The  colours  that  we  see  from  our  window  are  remark¬ 
able.  The  mountains  here  and  there  seem  to  be  painted 
with  yellow  ochre.  Occasionally  we  see  a  stripe  of 
Indian  red,  while,  towering  up  above  them  all,  is  grand 
Illimani,  one  of  the  three  highest  mountains  in  this  land 
of  tremendous  peaks,  its  head  and  shoulders  always 
clad  in  spotless,  perpetual  white. 

The  La  Paz  River  rushes  turbulently  through  the  city, 
its  muddy,  yellow  waters  dashed  to  foam  in  its  eagerness 


OUR  WINDOW  IN  LA  PAZ 


141 


to  get  on  to  the  Atlantic,  for  we  have  crossed  the  water¬ 
shed  between  the  great  oceans,  and,  after  toilsomely 
climbing  for  four  hundred  miles  from  the  Pacific,  and 
after  crossing  two  great  ranges  of  the  Andes,  one  of 
which  at  its  lowest  pass  is  almost  three  miles  above  the 
sea,  we  have  come  to  the  great  divide,  the  roof  of  South 
America. 

To  be  sure,  the  La  Paz  River  is  not  a  mighty  stream, 
even  in  the  rainy  season,  and  in  the  dry  season  it 
dwindles  to  a  good-sized  brook  ;  but  it  is  interesting  as 
one  of  the  head  waters  of  the  Amazon,  and  in  imagina¬ 
tion  we  can  trace  its  course  as  it  swells  in  volume  in  its 
precipitous  course,  changing  its  name  frequently,  until  at 
last  it  joins  the  Madeira,  and  then  later  on  the  mighty 
Amazon,  to  which  the  little  river  which  we  see  tumbling 
through  the  capital  of  Bolivia,  thousands  of  miles  away 
from  the  waiting  sea,  is  less  than  the  drop  in  the  pro¬ 
verbial  bucket. 

But  there  are  other  interesting  things  to  see  from  our 
window  besides  mountains  and  rivers  and  the  edge  of 
the  great  saucer  in  which  La  Paz  lies  so  snugly.  The 
level,  flat,  red-tiled  roofs,  covering  so  many  acres,  show 
that  here  is  a  large  city,  large  at  least  for  the  heart  of  the 
Andes,  a  city  of  seventy  thousand  people,  the  most 
populous  and  important  place  in  all  the  republic  of 
Bolivia. 

Here  and  there  the  red-tiled  roofs  are  broken  by  a 
church  tower,  the  soft  white  stone  of  which  it  is  built 
carved  into  many  symbols  in  a  rude  but  effective  way  ; 
and  from  the  belfry  float  the  musical  tones  of  the  fre¬ 
quent  bells,  calling  the  people  to  worship. 

Every  picture  gains  in  interest  from  the  life  which 
animates  it,  and  the  picture  from  our  window  is  full  of 
human  movement  and  colour.  A  constant  kaleidoscope  of 
changing  hues  is  that  narrow  cobble-paved  highway  be- 


142  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


low  us.  Here  comes  a  woman  in  vuluminous  skirts  that 
stand  out  all  around  her,  reminding  us  of  boyhood’s 
days,  when  wide  hoops  were  fashionable  ;  but  a  feminine 
friend  more  versed  in  such  matters  tells  us  that  the  effect 
is  produced  not  by  hoops,  but  by  very  full  skirts,  and 
several  of  them,  one  over  another. 

However  little  we  understand  such  things,  we  know 
bright  colours  when  we  see  them,  and  of  all  female  flower- 
gardens  the  Indian  and  Cholo  (half-breed)  women  of  La 
Paz  take  the  prize.  Reds  of  all  shades  and  tints  pass 
our  window  constantly  in  these  full,  flaunting  skirts, 
until  we  think  the  natives  have  all  adopted  Eugene 
Field’s  maxim, 


“  Any  colour,  so  long  as  it’s  red, 

Is  the  colour  that  suits  me  best.” 

But  as  soon  as  we  conclude  that  they  all  dress  in  flaring 
red,  a  group  of  women  in  yellow,  sky-blue,  orange,  grass- 
green,  or  purple  comes  along. 

One  can  never  look  out  of  our  window  in  La  Paz  in 
the  daytime  without  seeing  this  moving  procession  of 
colour,  the  brightest  and  most  striking  to  be  seen  on  the 
planet.  Cairo  and  Bombay  are  full  of  bright  and  gay 
costumes,  but  for  pure,  unadulterated  colour  La  Paz  out¬ 
strips  them  all. 

On  their  heads  the  women  wear  homely  round  chip 
hats,  and  often  over  their  shoulders  a  dark  manta,  thus 
concentrating  all  their  colour  upon  their  wide,  flowing 
skirts. 

Almost  all  of  them,  too,  have  a  burden  on  their  backs. 
It  is  often  a  baby,  whose  red-brown  face  and  sparkling 
black  eyes  peer  out  of  the  shawl  tied  around  his  mother’s 
neck  ;  for  there  is  no  race-suicide  in  Bolivia.  Either  on 
the  back,  or  in  front  at  the  maternal  fount,  two  women 
out  of  every  three  seem  to  carry  a  baby. 


OUB  WINDOW  IN  LA  PAZ 


143 


If  by  any  chance  it  is  not  a  baby,  the  woman  is  sure 
to  have  some  other  burden  quite  as  heavy — a  bag  of 
potatoes  or  fruit,  a  load  of  coca  leaves,  or  a  basket  of 
llama  manure,  their  common  fuel. 

The  men  are  not  so  picturesque  in  their  attire  as  the 
women,  but  even  they  are  very  gay — for  men.  Their 
characteristic  garment,  without  which  no  Cholo  is  half 
dressed,  is  the  poncho,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a 
bright  blanket  with  a  hole  in  the  middle,  through  which 
the  wearer  sticks  his  head,  while  the  blanket  falls  down 
in  folds  on  all  sides.  Edmund  Spenser’s  description  of 
the  Irishman’s  mantle  in  his  day  has  been  well  applied 
to  the  Bolivian’s  poncho  : 

i  1  When  it  raineth,  it  is  his  penthouse;  when  it 
bloweth,  it  is  his  tent ;  when  it  freezeth,  it  is  his  taber¬ 
nacle.  In  summer  he  can  wear  it  loose  ;  in  winter  he  can 
wrap  it  close  ;  at  all  times  he  can  use  it,  never  heavy, 
never  cumbersome.” 

Though  the  men  do  not  affect  such  bright  colours  as  the 
women,  their  ponchos  are  usually  red,  green,  or  blue, 
often  with  a  border  of  still  brighter  colours.  On  their 
heads  they  wear  a  woolen  cap  like  a  Canadian  toque, 
with  big  ear-laps  that  cover  their  ears,  even  in  the 
hottest  weather,  and  on  top  of  that  a  dirty  felt  hat. 
Their  trousers  are  of  some  dark  material,  slit  up  behind 
to  a  point  above  the  knee,  so  that  they  may  roll  them 
up  easily  when  walking  through  wet  grass  or  mud. 

They,  too,  are  burden-bearers  as  well  as  the  women, 
and  we  often  see  one  staggering  up  our  street  from  the 
railway  station  half  a  mile  away,  with  a  trunk  weigh¬ 
ing  two  hundred  pounds  upon  his  back.  Anything 
from  a  pound  of  peas  to  a  piano  they  will  carry  on  their 
patient,  long-suffering  backs ;  for  there  are  very  few 
cabs  and  no  wagons  in  La  Paz,  and  every  burden  must  be 
carried  on  the  backs  of  men,  women,  donkeys  or  llamas. 


144  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


And  this  brings  me  to  say  that  the  brute  beasts  that 
we  see  from  our  window  are  almost  as  interesting  as  the 
human  beings.  There  is  a  long  line  of  patient  donkeys, 
each  with  his  apportioned  load,  it  may  be  a  hundred 
bottles  of  beer,  their  necks  stuck  through  holes  in  the 
case,  or  two  great  panniers  of  bread,  one  on  either  side, 
or  four  large  milk-cans  balanced  in  the  same  way,  or 
perhaps  a  load  of  flattened  carcasses  of  sheep,  which 
have  been  frozen  and  dried  until  they  are  as  tough  as 
sole  leather,  and  quite  as  dry. 

More  interesting  than  the  donkeys  are  the  llamas,  the 
graceful,  timid,  obedient  little  camels  of  the  Andes,  with 
their  long,  graceful  necks  and  their  ears  pricked  for¬ 
ward,  scenting  danger  in  these  unaccustomed  streets. 
They,  too,  have  their  burden,  each  of  about  a  hundred 
pounds,  which  they  have  brought  down  from  the  higher 
plains  ;  alfalfa,  perhaps,  or  barley  cut  green  for  fodder, 
or  pineapples,  oranges,  figs,  and  bananas  from  the  lower 
plains. 

Opposite  our  window  a  Cholo  woman  has  opened  a 
fruit  stand,  where  she  tempts  the  passer-by  with  big 
green  grapes,  purple  figs,  yellow  quinces,  and  red  cher¬ 
ries.  She  also  sells  cauliflowers,  beans,  pink  potatoes, 
and  some  curious  white  things  about  as  big  as  large 
marbles  and  fully  as  hard. 

No  one  unlearned  in  things  Bolivian  could  guess  what 
they  are,  if  he  should  guess  a  hundred  times ;  but  you 
would  be  told,  if  you  asked  a  native,  that  they,  too,  were 
potatoes.  Potatoes,  of  all  things  !  They  look  more  like 
stones,  little  snowballs,  anything  but  potatoes.  But  po¬ 
tatoes  they  are,  frozen  and  dried,  with  their  skins  rubbed 
off,  and  frozen  again  and  dried  once  more,  until  they 
have  lost  their  identity  as  potatoes,  and  become  dried 
starch,  that  will  keep  for  years.  The  Indians  rub  off  the 
skins  by  trampling  on  the  tubers  with  their  bare  feet? 


OUK  WINDOW  IN  LA  PAZ 


145 


which  does  not  add  to  onr  appetite  for  our  next  dish  of 
Bolivian  soup,  in  which  frozen  potatoes  are  a  chief  in¬ 
gredient. 

We  see  rags  and  dirt  and  filth  unspeakable  from  our 
window,  as  well  as  bright  colours  and  brilliant  costumes. 
Dirt  in  layers,  in  patches,  in  scales  j  dirt  ingrained  and 
ineradicable.  And  such  rags ! 


“Some  in  rags,  and  some  in  tags, 

But  none  in  velvet  gowns,” 

do  the  beggars  of  La  Paz  come  to  town,  to  vary  an  old 
nursery  rhyme. 

To  be  truthful  and  tell  all  that  we  see  from  our  window, 
we  must  record  that  the  fruit- woman  opposite  does  not 
spend  all  her  time  in  vending  her  fruit  and  vegetables  ; 
but,  when  trade  is  slack,  she  turns  to  live  stock,  and  over¬ 
hauls  the  head  of  her  little  daughter.  When  she  finds  a 
particularly  choice  morsel  there,  she  gives  it  to  her, 
though  she  generally  eats  them  herself.  Disgusting  I 
Truly ;  but,  if  you  would  know  how  the  people  live,  we 
must  tell  you  all ;  and  this  is  a  not  uncommon  sight  in 
La  Paz. 

But  there  are  other  more  wholesome,  if  more  common¬ 
place,  sights.  There  come  a  man  and  woman,  both 
dressed  in  the  height  of  fashion.  Paris  styles  and  picture 
hat  for  the  lady  ;  Prince  Albert  coat,  silk  hat,  gloves  and 
cane  for  the  man.  The  distant  church  bells  call  to  mass, 
and  neat,  black-robed  figures  hurry  through  our  street, 
with  black  mantillas  over  their  heads  and  prayer-books 
in  their  hands,  while  behind  each  one  a  little  slavey, 
bearing  a  prayer-stool  quite  as  big  as  herself,  stumbles 
along. 

Let  us  hope  that  the  black-robed  lady  finds  consolation 
and  strength  in  her  service,  however  formal  and  mean- 


146  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


ingless  it  seems  to  us ;  and  let  us  hope  that  she  does  not 
forget  the  soul  or  the  body  of  the  little  slavey  who  trots 
patiently  after  her. 

Truly  our  window  in  La  Paz  reveals  many  a  strange 
glimpse  of  life  in  the  high  Bolivian  Andes. 


XVIII 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  CHILE 

The  Topography  of  Chile— Blessed  by  the  Absence  of  Gold— The  Ancient 
Chileans — The  Brave  Araucanians — European  Blood  and  European 
Names — The  Heroic  O’Higgins — Chile’s  Struggle  for  Independence — 
San  Martin,  the  Hero  of  the  War — Who  Can  Vote  in  Chile — The  Pres¬ 
ident’s  Power— The  War  with  Peru  and  Bolivia — The  Last  Civil 
War — A  War  Happily  Averted. 

THE  history  of  Chile,  though  following  the  gen¬ 
eral  outlines  of  the  other  South  American  Re¬ 
publics,  has  distinctive  peculiarities  of  its  own 
which  make  it  of  decided  interest.  In  the  nomenclature 
of  some  of  our  congressional  districts  it  would  be  called 
the  “  Shoestring  Republic,  ”  being  very  long  and  exceed¬ 
ingly  narrow,  and  extending  from  about  the  eighteenth 
degree  of  south  latitude  to  the  fifty -fifth,  a  distance  of 
fully  twenty-five  hundred  miles,  while  its  average  breadth 
is  scarcely  more  than  a  hundred. 

Imagine  the  United  States  as  stretching  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  running  back  from  the 
shore  as  far  as  the  Catskill  Mountains  from  New  York,  or 
the  Berkshire  hills  from  Boston,  and  we  have  some  rough 
idea  of  the  general  topography  of  Chile. 

Chile  was  greatly  blessed,  especially  in  her  early  his¬ 
tory,  by  the  absence  of  gold  and  silver  mines.  Para¬ 
doxical  as  this  statement  sounds,  its  truth  will  be  seen 
when  we  remember  how  Peru,  Bolivia  and  Ecuador,  the 
Inca  states  to  the  north,  were  cursed  by  the  gold  which 
provoked  the  cupidity  of  the  Spaniards,  and  resulted  in 
the  cruel  wars  and  horrible  oppressions  that,  over  and 

147 


148  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


over  again,  decimated  the  people,  and  reduced  them,  in 
two  centuries,  to  one-tenth  of  their  original  numbers. 

In  fact  when  Almagro,  the  chief  lieutenant  of  Pizarro, 
to  whom  was  assigned  the  southern  part  of  South  Amer¬ 
ica,  pushed  his  way  into  Chile,  in  his  insatiable  search 
for  gold,  and  found,  instead,  a  pastoral  and  agricultural 
people,  who  knew  little  about  gold  and  cared  less  for  it, 
he  turned  north  again,  in  disgust,  raised  the  banner  of 
revolt  against  Pizarro,  and  was  promptly  beaten  and  as 
promptly  beheaded  by  that  uncompromising  tyrant. 

Almagro  found  that  almost  the  whole  of  the  territory 
occupied  by  modern  Chile  had  been  conquered  by  the 
Incas,  about  a  century  before  the  Spaniards  landed  on 
their  shores.  Agriculture  in  these  long  and  fertile  val¬ 
leys  to  the  south  of  Peru  and  Bolivia,  we  are  told,  was 
highly  developed  ;  u  the  people  were  clothed  in  substan¬ 
tial  stuffs  of  their  own  manufacture  ;  they  mined  copper, 
tin  and  lead,  and  possessed  excellent  arms  and  tools. 
The  tribes  all  spoke  the  same  language,  but  each  enjoyed 
a  degree  of  autonomy  under  its  own  chiefs.  Their  habits 
were  democratic ;  they  loved  freedom  and  independence, 
the  Inca  socialistic  system  did  not  prevail,  and  each 
farmer  owned  his  own  field  and  could  transmit  it  to  his 
children.  The  race  was  large  and  vigorous,  the  selected 
survivors  from  among  immigrants  who  had  been  greatly 
improved  by  countless  generations  of  struggle  in  the 
more  rigorous  climate.” 

In  this  last  sentence  we  have  another  decisive  element 
in  Chile’s  comparative  prosperity  and  almost  uniform 
success  in  battle.  Her  territory  lies  largely  in  the  tem¬ 
perate  zone,  and  even  the  part  which  comes  within  the 
tropics  is  so  near  the  sea,  and  so  affected  by  the  cool  and 
life-giving  Humboldt  current,  that  a  hardy,  vigorous, 
self-reliant  race  has  been  the  result. 

But  to  return  to  Chile’s  early  history.  Having  dis- 


AN  INDIAN  OF  CHILE.  A  BOLIVIAN  INDIAN. 


ANCIENT  AND  MODERN  CHILE 


149 


posed  of  liis  rebellious  lieutenant  Almagro,  Pizarro  in 
1540  sent  Valdivia,  an  able  Spanish  general,  to  conquer 
all  the  region  to  the  south  of  Peru.  He  met  with  little 
opposition  and  indeed  was  welcomed  by  some  powerful 
tribes  as  their  ally  against  the  fierce  Araucanians  who 
dwelt  south  of  the  river  Biobio.  A  long  war  followed 
with  these  valiant  and  warlike  Indians,  which  lasted  with 
various  intermissions  for  sixty  years,  and  resulted  in  leav¬ 
ing  the  Araucanians  masters  of  the  situation,  and  rulers 
of  all  the  land  below  the  Biobio.  This  mastery  they 
maintained  during  all  the  Spanish  occupation,  and  it  is 
only  in  comparatively  recent  years  that  these  valiant 
warriors  have  really  been  incorporated  into  the  Republic 
of  Chile. 

Of  late  an  important  and  successful  missionary  work 
has  been  undertaken  by  the  South  American  Missionary 
Society  of  Great  Britain  to  which  this  brave  race  happily 
and  readily  responds. 

The  development  of  Chile  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  was  slower,  but  much  more  natural 
and  substantial  than  in  the  Inca  states  to  the  north.  She 
was  not  oppressed  and  ravaged  by  gold- thirsty  tyrants  as 
they  were,  and  the  wars  with  the  Araucanians  on  the 
southern  frontier  proved  a  school  of  military  training 
which  developed  many  local  heroes,  who  rose  to  high 
places  of  influence  and  power. 

Agriculture  and  stock-raising,  being  the  chief  indus¬ 
tries  of  the  country,  rather  than  gold  and  silver  mining, 
proved  to  be  a  slower  but  far  more  substantial  and  desir¬ 
able  basis  of  wealth  which  could  not  so  easily  be  trans¬ 
planted  to  Spain,  leaving  the  country  impoverished  as 
were  Peru  and  Bolivia.  Most  of  the  landed  proprietors 
lived  upon  their  estates,  and  treated  their  labourers  with 
some  kind  of  decent  consideration,  and  these  labourers 
were  docile  and  obedient. 


150  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Thus  the  history  of  Chile  wrote  itself  for  the  most  part 
in  peaceful  characters  for  nearly  two  centuries,  until 
the  great  upheaval  came  which,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  wrenched,  one  after  another,  every 
province  of  South  America  from  the  control  of  Spain. 
To  be  sure,  the  inhabitants  were  ignorant  and  backward, 
and  the  common  people  lived  in  wretched  poverty,  but, 
compared  with  their  northern  neighbours,  they  were  con¬ 
tented  and  happy. 

Another  thing  which  has  promoted  the  greater  pros¬ 
perity  of  Chile  has  been  the  large  infusion  of  European 
blood  from  different  nations,  especially  from  Great 
Britain  in  the  earlier  years  of  her  independence.  To  call 
the  roll  of  the  leading  families  of  Chile  to-day,  would 
seem  like  reading  a  page  of  the  London  or  Glasgow  or 
Belfast  directory.  O’ Higgins,  Mackenna,  Walker, 
Edwards,  Prat,  Tupper,  MacClure,  Ross,  Cumming,  Day, 
are  still  the  leading  names,  and,  in  most  of  the  larger 
towns  and  many  smaller  ones,  we  see  Edwards  Street 
and  Walker  Street  and  Prat  Plaza  and  O’ Higgins  Square. 

O’ Higgins  is  perhaps  the  most  famous  name  of  all.  A 
young  Irish  lad  of  this  name,  in  the  later  days  of  the 
Spanish  rule,  drifted  to  Valparaiso  from  Argentina, 
and  by  his  ability,  military  and  executive,  became  in  the 
course  of  the  years,  governor  of  Chile,  and  finally  viceroy 
of  the  Spanish  dominions.  A  good  and  honest  adminis¬ 
tration  he  gave  the  people,  and  his  son,  Bernardo  O’ Hig¬ 
gins,  was  no  less  distinguished,  though  less  successful,  in 
the  later  revolution. 

The  struggle  of  Chile  for  independence  was  a  long  and 
arduous  one,  lasting  throughout  the  decade  from  1809- 
1819.  The  last  Spaniards  indeed  were  not  driven  from 
her  southern  shores  until  1826,  though  victory  was  prac¬ 
tically  won  six  years  before. 

In  this  tedious  war  San  Martin,  the  Argentine  general, 


ANCIENT  AND  MODEEN  CHILE 


151 


was  the  chief  heroic  figure,  as  on  all  this  western  coast. 
Lord  Cochrane,  the  erratic  British  naval  commander,  was 
another  large  factor  in  obtaining  the  freedom  of  Chile, 
though  he  did  not  reach  her  shores  until  near  the  close  of 
the  war.  But  his  energetic  maneuvres  made  up  for  the 
lateness  of  his  arrival,  and  he  soon  drove  the  Spanish 
fleet  for  refuge  under  the  guns  of  the  fortress  of  Callao, 
and  made  the  coast  line  and  the  southern  seas  free  for  the 
patriots.  He  performed  some  prodigies  of  valour,  which 
will  always  live  in  the  gallant  history  of  the  sea,  but  per¬ 
haps  the  best  service  he  performed  for  Chile  was  bringing 
in  his  train  a  number  of  Scotchmen  and  Englishmen  who, 
remaining,  and  marrying  in  Chile,  have  now  become  her 
leading  families,  furnishing  some  of  the  eminent  names 
we  have  before  recorded. 

Since  the  war  for  independence  Chile  has  suffered  the 
usual  internal  disturbances,  common  to  all  the  South 
American  states.  But  her  birth-throes  have  not  been  so 
severe  nor  as  prolonged  as  those  of  her  sister  states.  She 
has  enjoyed  more  periods  of  rest  and  recuperation,  and 
of  late  years,  with  the  exception  of  one  civil  war,  she  has 
turned  her  attention  to  foes  without,  rather  than  foes 
within. 

One  reason  for  this  is  that  she  has  had  a  larger  body  of 
conservative  landed  proprietors  as  the  backbone  of  her 
society  than  her  neighbours  to  the  north,  and  conserva¬ 
tive  and  business  conserving  politics  have  ruled  during 
most  of  her  history. 

The  earliest  constitution  of  Chile  recognized  the  aristoc¬ 
racy  as  a  ruling  political  element  in  the  government  and 
the  constitution,  even  though  amended,  more  than  once, 
is  “the  most  aristocratic  and  centralized  of  American 
constitutions.”  To  vote,  a  man  must  have  an  income  of 
a  thousand  pesos  or  dollars,  but  as  the  dollar  is  worth  to¬ 
day  only  about  twenty-five  cents  in  gold,  it  is  not  a  high 


152  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


property  qualification.  There  is  an  education  clause  in 
the  suffrage  bill  as  well,  but  men  who  can  read  and  write 
are  generally  allowed  to  vote,  though  the  constitution  de¬ 
mands  both  education  and  property. 

In  theory  the  President  has  far  more  power  than  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  is  not  only  comman- 
der-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  but  controls  the  judi¬ 
ciary  and  has  practically  an  absolute  veto  over  the  legis¬ 
lature.  This  power,  however,  he  has  rarely  used,  and  in 
effect  the  government  of  Chile  seems  about  as  democratic 
and  more  stable  than  that  of  the  other  South  America 
republics. 

Little  by  little  the  constitution  has  been  liberalized 
and  the  power  of  the  aristocracy  curbed  without  many 
serious  internal  commotions.  Practical  religious  liberty 
is  secured,  though  the  constitution  recognizes  only  the 
state  church.  Civil  marriage,  a  great  boon,  has  also 
been  secured  by  the  people. 

The  war  with  Spain  in  1865  was  one  of  the  marked 
events  in  later  Chilean  history.  Spain’s  strong  navy  had 
the  coast  at  its  mercy,  but  accomplished  nothing  perma¬ 
nent  in  the  way  of  humbling  her  former  colony,  beyond 
bombarding  Valparaiso,  where  ten  millions  of  dollars’ 
worth  of  property  was  destroyed,  in  three  hours  and  a 
half.  Then  the  Spanish  fleet  sailed  away,  without  even 
extracting  the  demanded  apology  for  alleged  insults  from 
the  Chileans. 

During  all  these  years  and  up  to  the  present  time,  with 
the  usual  interruptions,  to  which  all  nations  are  subject, 
the  financial  and  commercial  prosperity  of  Chile  has  con¬ 
tinued.  Foreigners,  especially  Germans,  have  flocked 
into  the  country  of  late  years  and  have  often  made  them¬ 
selves  rich  by  their  energy  in  exploiting  the  resources  of 
the  country. 

In  1879  when  the  fortunes  of  Chile  had  suffered  a 


A.  MARKET  SCENE  IN  CHILE. 


ANCIENT  AND  MODEEN  CHILE 


153 


temporary  reverse,  and  her  revenues  were  at  their  lowest 
ebb,  her  war  with  the  allies  Peru  and  Bolivia  for  the 
nitrate  beds,  though  considered  by  many  an  unjust  war, 
recuperated  her  resources,  and  by  a  single  victory  over 
the  celebrated  ironclad  Huascar ,  commanded  by  the 
heroic  Admiral  Grau,  Chile  captured  the  chief  source  of 
her  enemies,  and  was  able  to  double  her  wealth  of  both 
revenues  in  a  single  month. 

The  great  event  of  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  the  civil  war  between  the  party  of  President 
Balmaceda,  who  had  been  elected  by  the  liberals,  and 
the  congressional  party  who  represented  the  conserva¬ 
tives.  The  President  retained  command  of  the  land 
forces,  and  the  Congressionalists  captured  the  navy  in 
the  early  days  of  the  struggle.  With  this  they  terrorized 
the  coast,  blockaded  the  principal  ports,  captured  the 
nitrate  fields,  and,  with  them,  most  of  the  revenues  of 
the  country,  and  soon  routed  the  Balmacedists,  horse, 
foot  and  dragoons.  President  Balmaceda  took  refuge  in 
the  Argentine  legation  where  he  remained  unknown  to 
his  enemies  who  had  captured  Santiago,  the  capital, 
until  the  last  day  of  his  term  of  office,  when  he  com¬ 
mitted  suicide,  from  a  lofty  but  mistaken  view  of 
patriotism  and  friendship,  that  his  death  might  unify 
the  warring  factions,  and  relieve  his  friends  of  the 
Argentine  legation  of  any  responsibility  for  his  escape. 

Since  that  disastrous  civil  war,  Chile  has  enjoyed 
peace,  though  she  has  been  on  the  brink  of  war  more 
than  once  with  her  powerful  and  rapidly  growing  neigh¬ 
bour  to  the  east,  the  Argentine  Eepublic.  Both  countries 
nearly  impoverished  themselves  in  the  purchase  of  iron¬ 
clads  in  anticipation  of  war,  but  in  1898  a  conflict  was 
averted  by  the  arbitration  of  the  American  minister,  and 
in  1902  by  the  intervention  of  England,  and  now  happily 
the  ironclads  are  for  sale.  An  heroic  figure  of  the  Christ, 


154  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


the  Prince  of  Peace,  on  the  very  highest  point  of  the 
Andean  pass  between  the  two  countries,  happily  tells  of 
the  triumph  of  arbitration  over  war. 

Just  now  (1907)  Chile  seems  to  be  in  a  period  of  de¬ 
pression  compared  with  Peru,  Bolivia  and  Argentina. 
President  Montt  has  many  enemies  within  the  govern¬ 
ment,  who  often  thwart  his  well-meant  efforts ;  the  cur¬ 
rency  of  the  country  is  greatly  depreciated,  being  worth 
only  about  half  as  much  as  that  of  Peru,  which  is  on  a 
gold  basis ;  and  Valparaiso,  the  chief  commercial  city, 
was  sorely  smitten  in  the  awful  earthquake  of  1906, 
which  destroyed  so  many  thousands  of  lives  and  so  many 
millions  of  property. 

But  Valparaiso  is  already  rising  from  her  ruins,  and 
her  ashes,  and  Chile  will  doubtless  come  forth  from  this 
present  depression  in  her  fortunes,  stronger  and  more 
stable  than  ever,  as  she  has  so  often  emerged  from  more 
serious  troubles  in  the  past. 


XIX 


THE  WEALTH  OF  CHILE 


A  Sombre,  Monotonous  Scene — The  Jewel  in  the  Rough  Casket — The 
Animal  Life  on  the  Chilean  Coast — How  the  Guano  Islands  are  Made 
— The  Lobos  Islands — The  Nitrate  Business  of  Antofagasta — Shooting 
the  Chute — The  Origin  of  the  Nitrate  Beds — The  “Nevada”  of  the 
Andes — How  the  Nitrate  is  Extracted — How  Long  Will  It  Last — The 
Bitter  Antipathy  of  Peru — What  the  United  States  Sends  to  Chile. 


S  I  write  I  am  sitting  on  tlie  upper  deck  of 


the  Chilean  steamer,  Loa ,  in  the  rough,  surf- 


lashed  roadstead  of  Antofagasta.  Behind  one 


of  the  dreariest,  dullest  looking  towns  in  the  world,  rise 
some  of  the  dullest,  dreariest  hills  that  my  eyes  ever 
rested  on.  They  are  not  high  enough  to  be  grand. 
There  is  not  a  tree  or  a  blade  of  grass  or  a  flower  or  even 
a  cactus  plant  to  be  seen  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach  in 
any  direction.  The  dun -coloured  houses  can  hardly  be 
distinguished  from  the  dun-coloured  foot-hills  of  the 
Andes  into  which  they  seem  to  melt.  One  or  two  great 
copper  smelters,  idle  because  it  does  not  pay  to  work 
them  any  longer,  only  add  to  the  sombre,  hopeless 
monotony  of  the  scene. 

For  hundreds  of  miles  on  either  side  of  Antofagasta, 
the  same  unpromising  scene  greets  the  eye  ;  dull,  brown, 
rainless,  verdureless  hills  and  surf- washed  shores,  entirely 
inaccessible  in  most  places  because  of  the  heavy  Pacific 
swell.  Yet  in  this  miserable  harbour  of  Antofagasta, 
one  of  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  in  the  world,  I  can 
count  at  this  moment  more  than  a  dozen  large  steamers 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  more  than  twenty  great 


155 


156  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OBPOETUNITY 


square-rigged  sailing  ships,  all  drawing  full  cargoes  from 
this  unpromising  coast. 

Behind  these  dreary  hills  of  sand  and  rock  lies  the 
wealth  of  Golconda,  which  the  rapacity  of  three  hundred 
years  of  Spanish  rule  and  the  recklessness  of  recent  re¬ 
publican  days  have  not  been  able  to  squander.  It  is  in¬ 
teresting  to  enquire  further  about  the  jewel  enclosed  in 
such  a  rough  casket,  as  the  wealth  of  Chile. 

This  consists  largely  in  copper,  nitrate  and  guano, 
though  much  tin,  silver,  quinine,  coca,  and  other  pro¬ 
ductions  of  isolated  Bolivia,  for  which  Chile  gets  the 
credit,  come  through  these  ports. 

Copper  mining  and  smelting  are  much  the  same  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  whether  in  Montana,  Michigan  or 
Chile,  and  I  need  not  dwell  on  this  source  of  Chilean 
wealth,  except  to  say  that  there  are  probably  no  richer 
mines  in  the  world  than  those  of  the  west  coast  of  South 
America,  and  they  are  being  developed,  and  their  yellow 
treasures  extracted  on  a  larger  and  larger  scale  every 
year,  by  American  and  European  capitalists. 

But  guano  and  nitrate  present  sources  of  wealth  that 
have  unique  and  interesting  features,  and  Chile  controls 
the  world’s  supply  of  both  these  fertilizers.  If  Horace 
Greeley’s  dictum  about  the  man  who  makes  two  blades 
of  grass  to  grow  where  one  grew  before,  is  true,  what 
shall  we  say  of  the  country  that  supplies  plant  food 
enough  to  nourish  four  blades  of  grass  on  the  sterilest 
New  England  farms,  where  none  grew  before  ! 

Manure  may  not  seem  a  very  savoury  subject,  but  it  is 
a  vastly  important  one  in  the  world’s  economy,  and  I 
have  considerable  sympathy  for  1  ‘Elizabeth  in  Buegen” 
who  spent  on  fertilizers  for  her  German  garden,  the 
money  her  husband  gave  her  for  a  birthday  present. 

A  few  days  ago  in  the  long  journey  down  this  monoto¬ 
nous  coast,  the  tedium  was  broken,  as  was  remarked  by  the 


THE  WEALTH  OF  CHILE 


157 


flight  over  our  ship  of  millions  and  millions  of  sea  birds  ; 
gulls,  ducks,  divers  of  divers  kinds,  and  great  pelicans 
with  huge  pouches  hanging  from  their  under  bills.  The 
sea  was  as  lively  as  the  air,  and  tens  of  millions  of  fish, 
large  and  small,  in  huge  schools,  were  darting  through 
the  still  waters,  sometimes  showing  their  fins  above  the 
surface,  as  they  were  chased  by  the  larger  monsters  of 
the  deep. 

Every  second  the  keen-eyed  gulls  would  poise  on  even 
wing,  and  then  drop  like  plummets  into  the  sea  to  re¬ 
appear  with  a  fish  in  their  bills,  while  the  big,  sociable, 
lumbering  pelicans  would  drop  in  battalions,  making  a 
splash  that  could  be  heard  half  a  mile  away,  and  sending 
up  foam  and  spray  like  a  dozen  park  fountains. 

Their  whole  bodies  would  be  submerged  for  several 
seconds,  but  they  seldom  missed  their  prey,  which  they 
would  comfortably  dispose  of  in  their  pouches,  and  then 
rise  to  pounce  once  more  upon  their  quarry.  After  a 
time  these  greedy  birds  would  get  so  much  in  their 
pouches  that  they  could  no  longer  rise  into  the  air,  until 
the  first  load  was  digested. 

The  seals  and  porpoises  and  sea  lions  were  as  busy  as 
the  birds,  and  were  constantly  showing  their  shiny,  sinu¬ 
ous  bodies  above  the  surface,  as  they  chased  the  fish,  or 
came  up  to  breathe. 

This  marvellous  fecundity  of  life  in  sea  and  air,  which 
can  probably  be  matched  nowhere  else  in  the  world,  ac¬ 
counts  for  the  guano  islands,  those  sterile,  gray  volcanic 
rocks  by  which  we  had  been  sailing.  These  islands,  so 
convenient  to  their  dinners  and  breakfasts,  these  birds 
for  countless  ages  have  chosen  for  their  night  encamp¬ 
ments.  Here  they  have  brought  and  dropped  the  fish 
they  could  not  eat.  Here  the  seals  have  also  crawled  up 
to  bask  in  the  sun,  and  often  to  die,  as  it  would  seem,  for 
it  is  said  that  five  hundred  tons  of  sealskins  have  been 


158  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


found  on  a  single  island,  and  here,  unconsciously,  bird 
and  beast  and  fish  have  been  accumulating  wealth  for 
Peru  and  Chile,  and  fertilizers  for  all  the  rest  of  the  world. 

For  hundreds  of  miles  along  the  South  American  coast, 
these  guano  islands  are  scattered.  Near  Salaverry,  a 
long  way  north  of  Callao,  in  Peruvian  waters,  one  finds 
them,  and  far  south  beyond  the  borders  of  Peru.  In  the 
war  of  1879  they  were  largely  taken  by  Chile,  but  not  be¬ 
fore  Peru  had  extracted  a  billion  dollars’  worth  of  guano 
from  them  and  reaped  a  revenue  of  many  millions  for  her 
national  treasury.  They  are  now  partially  exhausted, 
though  the  supply  of  birds  and  fish  and  seals  is  inex¬ 
haustible,  and,  as  the  birds  are  protected,  new  deposits 
are  constantly  made. 

The  guano  of  the  Lobos  Islands,  which  the  United 
States  once  controlled  and  then  gave  back  to  Peru,  to  the 
everlasting  gratitude  of  the  Peruvians,  is  found  in  pockets, 
we  are  told.  “  It  is  covered  with  layers  of  sand  from  two 
to  fifteen  feet  thick.  The  sand  is  shovelled  off,  and  the 
guano  taken  out.  As  it  is  dug  into,  so  strong  a  smell  of 
ammonia  arises  that  men  have  to  wear  iron  masks  over 
their  faces  to  keep  the  ammonia  dust  out  of  their  mouths, 
noses  and  lungs.  The  guano  looks  like  fine  sand,  which 
is  first  loaded  on  trucks,  and  then  carried  on  a  tramway 
to  the  shore,  where  it  is  transferred  to  the  ships  to  be 
taken  to  Europe  and  America.  After  a  few  days  at  sea 
the  odour  disappears.  The  ammonia  of  the  upper  crust 
passes  off,  and  the  filthiness  of  the  cargo  is  not  detected 
until  one  goes  into  the  hold.” 

A  far  greater  and  more  inexhaustible  source  of  wealth 
of  the  west  coast  of  South  America  is  the  nitrate  beds, 
for  which  chiefly  Chile  went  to  war,  and  which  she  cap¬ 
tured  from  Peru  nearly  thirty  years  ago.  The  town  of 
Antofagasta,  on  which  I  look  whenever,  as  I  write,  I 
turn  my  eyes  landward,  is  chiefly  a  nitrate  town,  and  the 


THE  WEALTH  OF  CHILE 


159 


many  large  ships  in  the  harbour  are  largely  nitrate  ships. 
To  be  sure,  Antofagasta  is  also  a  shipping  port  for  Bolivia, 
by  which  she  is  connected  by  a  slender  line  of  narrow 
gauge  railway  six  hundred  miles  long,  that  stretches  far 
up  towards  the  centre  of  South  America,  but  if  it  were 
not  for  the  nitrate  business,  this  busy  port  would  soon  be 
deserted. 

Two  hundred  miles  to  the  north  is  the  town  of  Iquique, 
the  largest  and  most  important  between  Callao  and  Val¬ 
paraiso,  a  town  of  30,000  people,  with  good  streets,  good 
stores  and  several  banks,  and  a  wealth  of  shipping  in  the 
harbour,  all  dependent  on  the  nitrate  fields.  A  hundred 
miles  farther  north  still,  is  Pisagua,  a  similar  but  smaller 
port,  from  which  a  railway  starts  that  does  nothing  but 
haul  nitrate  and  supplies  for  the  nitrate  works  and 
workers.  Besides  these,  there  are  half  a  score  of  smaller, 
but  busy,  ports  where  nitrate  is  the  sole  business.  For 
half  a  day  we  lay  tossing  on  the  long  rolling  swells  of  the 
Pacific  of  the  little  harbour  of  Caleta  Buena,  to  whose 
nitrate  miners  we  were  bringing  supplies  of  cabbages, 
potatoes,  oranges  and  bananas. 

A  precipitous  cliff  rises  almost  directly  from  the  shore, 
and,  on  the  face  of  this  cliff,  almost  as  steep  as  the  side  of 
a  house,  in  four  great  chutes,  nitrate  cars  were  running 
up  and  down ;  the  full  cars  coming  down,  forced  the 
empty  cars  up,  like  so  many  great  buckets  in  a  well,  only 
that  in  a  well  the  full  buckets  come  up  and  the  empty 
ones  go  down.  So  high  was  this  cliff  that  the  men  who 
got  off  half-way  down  to  adjust  the  machinery  looked 
like  flies,  while,  at  the  top,  I  could  not  make  them  out  at 
all.  To  the  top  of  this  cliff  the  nitrate  is  brought  in  the 
cars,  and  then  “shoots  the  chutes”  until  it  reaches  the 
beach  below,  to  be  loaded  for  Germany  or  England  or  the 
United  States  in  the  ships  that  are  always  eagerly  wait¬ 
ing  for  it. 


160  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


The  source  of  this  supply  of  the  world’s  wealth,  wealth 
that  vastly  increases  the  agricultural  productiveness  of 
many  lands,  is  interesting  and  but  little  known.  For 
hundreds  of  miles  along  the  northern  coast  of  Chile,  in 
the  territory  that  formerly  belonged  to  Bolivia  and  Peru, 
there  runs  a  low  range  of  mountains,  which  rarely  rise  to 
a  height  of  more  than  4,000  or  5,000  feet,  and  are  usually 
considerably  lower.  Beyond  this  coast  range  runs  a  long 
valley,  north  and  south,  for  hundreds  of  miles,  and,  be¬ 
yond  the  valley,  the  high  Andes  rise,  peak  on  peak, 
towards  the  interior.  On  the  western  side  of  this  valley 
which  is  bleak,  barren  and  forbidding  as  the  worst  parts 
of  New  Mexico  or  the  desert  of  Sahara  itself,  the  nitrate 
beds  are  found.  In  some  places  they  are  three,  and  even 
four  miles  wide,  iu  others  they  almost  disappear,  only  to 
crop  out  farther  on.  Sometimes  the  nitrate  lies  upon  the 
surface,  at  other  times  it  is  fifty  feet  below  ;  sometimes  it 
is  almost  pure,  at  other  times  the  rock  does  not  contain 
more  than  ten  per  cent,  of  nitrate,  but,  even  then,  it  pays 
to  mine  and  refine  it. 

Some  curious  theories  of  the  origin  of  the  nitrate  have 
been  propounded.  Mr.  F.  G.  Carpenter  records  three  : 
one,  that  the  desert  was  once  the  bed  of  an  inland  sea, 
and  that  the  nitrate  came  from  the  decaying  of  the  nitro¬ 
genous  seaweed.  Another  theory  is  that  the  ammonia 
rising  from  the  beds  of  guano  on  the  islands  off  the  coast 
was  carried  by  the  winds  over  the  range  of  coastal  hills, 
and  there  condensed,  settled,  and  united  with  other 
chemicals  in  the  soil  to  form  the  nitrate  deposit.  Still  a 
third  theory  is  that  the  electrical  discharges  of  the  Andes 
combined  with  the  elements  of  the  air  to  make  nitric  acid. 
This  acid,  it  is  supposed,  was  carried  down  through  the 
ages  in  the  floods  of  the  Andes,  and  deposited  in  these 
beds,  in  the  form  of  nitrate  of  soda. 

No  wonder  that  Mr.  Carpenter  adds  that  “none  of 


ALONG  THE  ROADSIDE  IN  CHILE. 


IN  THE  STRAITS  OF  MAGELLAN. 


THE  WEALTH  OF  CHILE 


161 


these  theories  is  entirely  satisfactory.  ”  That  is  a  mild 
way  of  putting  it.  Each  seems  a  little  more  absurd  than 
the  last,  but  who  will  furnish  a  better  one  ? 

It  is  known  that  the  electric  discharges  of  the  Andes  are 
on  the  grandest  scale  in  the  world.  “  Dry  storms  ”  often 
occur,  and  it  is  said  that  persons  sitting  in  a  current  of 
air  are  sometimes  struck  dead  by  lightning  when  there  is 
not  a  cloud  in  the  air,  or  any  apparent  hash.  The  wind 
rises  to  a  hurricane,  we  are  told,  and  “  the  heavy  electric 
accumulations  in  the  air  produce  terrible  atmospheric  ex¬ 
plosions  and  violent  detonations,  while  the  surface  of  the 
ground  sparkles  and  crackles  with  electric  fluid.  When 
this  phenomenon  takes  place,  men  and  animals  and  in¬ 
animate  objects  give  forth  a  sudden,  glimmering  light, 
and  the  quivering,  stifling  atmosphere  takes  a  reddish 
hue.” 

While  in  the  high  Andes  of  Bolivia,  and  especially  on 
Lake  Titicaca,  we  saw  terrific  thunder-storms  hovering 
over  the  mountains  nearly  every  day,  and  my  friends 
spoke  of  a  curious  feeling  when  the  electric  fluid  was  in 
the  air,  which  they  call  the  “  Nevada,”  and  which  makes 
them  feel  cross  and  “  edgy,”  though  the  day  may  be  fresh 
and  fair  to  all  appearances.  The  “  Nevada”  affects  old 
residents  more  than  newcomers,  strange  to  say,  for  the 
electricity  seems  to  “get  into  their  bones.”  So  it  would 
seem  that  the  superabundant  electricity  of  the  Andes  may 
account  for  anything,  even  for  the  nitrate  beds. 

However  they  are  accounted  for,  these  beds  are  very 
substantial  and  important  facts  for  the  country  that  owns 
them.  In  a  single  month,  after  Chile  had  captured  these 
nitrate  beds  from  Peru,  her  revenues  had  doubled.  In 
other  words,  all  her  customs  revenues,  on  all  other  articles 
combined,  are  not  equal  to  her  revenue  from  this  one 
article,  of  which  she  annually  exports  more  than 
$30,000,000 worth.  A  million  tons  goto  Europe  every 


162  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


year,  largely  to  fertilize  the  sugar-beet  fields  of  Germany. 
Perhaps  a  tenth  as  much  goes  to  the  States,  and  is  used 
for  making  powder  and  other  explosives,  as  well  as  for 
fertilizers. 

The  method  of  extracting  the  nitrate  wealth  of  Chile 
from  the  soil  is  interesting  and  novel.  When  it  lies  upon 
the  surface,  of  course  it  can  easily  be  shovelled  into  carts 
or  cars,  but  when  it  lies  as  it  usually  does  below  a  crust 
of  salt  or  other  rock,  two  or  more  feet  thick,  it  is  a  diffi¬ 
cult  proposition  to  get  at  it.  Then  a  round  hole  is  bored 
through  the  top  crust,  a  little  larger  than  the  body  of  a 
small  boy,  into  the  soft  earth  below  the  layer  of  nitrate 
rock.  Into  this  hole  a  boy  is  lowered  who  places  a  charge 
of  dynamite  under  the  nitrate  and  attaches  a  fuse  to  it. 
The  boy  is  hauled  out,  the  fuse  lighted,  a  tremendous  ex¬ 
plosion  occurs,  and  tons  of  nitrate  rock  are  blown  into 
the  air.  This  is  broken  into  smaller  pieces,  loaded  into 
cars,  and  sent  to  the  refinery  where  the  foreign  substances 
are  extracted,  until  the  nitrate  is  ninety-five  per  cent.  pure. 
Again  it  is  loaded  into  the  cars,  carried  forty,  fifty  or 
eighty  miles  to  the  coast  as  the  case  may  be,  shot  down  a 
mighty  chute,  perhaps,  in  other  cars,  as  at  Caleta  Buena, 
and  from  there  shipped  around  the  Horn  to  Germany, 
Great  Britain,  or  the  United  States. 

When  the  big  canal  is  finished  at  Panama,  if  the 
nitrate  ships  can  afford  the  tolls,  it  will  prove  a  large 
item  of  the  freight  that  will  pass  through  that  redoubt¬ 
able  ditch. 

A  bi-product  of  the  nitrate  fields  is  the  iodine  of  com¬ 
merce,  all  of  which  goes  to  a  London  firm,  which  has  a 
monopoly  of  the  iodine  trade  of  the  world. 

Five  years  ago  it  was  said  that  at  the  present  rate  of 
consumption,  the  nitrate  fields  would  be  exhausted  in 
fifty  years.  The  rate  has  continued  and  increased,  but 
pew  fields  have  been  discovered,  and  now  it  is  said  that 


THE  WEALTH  OF  CHILE 


163 


enough  nitrate  is  known  to  exist,  to  last  the  world  for  200 
years  more.  The  Chilean  government  owns  all  the  un¬ 
developed  fields,  and  holds  the  best  of  them  at  about 
$2,000  an  acre. 

Such  is  the  strange  product  of  the  soil  that  has  peopled 
the  barrenest,  most  inhospitable  coast  in  all  the  world 
with  thriving  and  prosperous  communities  ;  that  has  at¬ 
tracted  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  capital  from  Europe 
and  America  ;  that  has  enriched  the  two  Eepublics  that 
have  ^owned  the  fields ;  that  has  caused  at  least  one  war, 
and  may  precipitate  another  at  any  time. 

Peru,  as  may  be  imagined,  is  very  much  exasperated 
over  the  loss  of  her  chief  source  of  wealth.  “  We  are 
only  biding  our  time,”  you  often  hear  it  said  in  Peru. 
“We  will  have  our  nitrate  provinces  back  again.” 

“Did  Christ  die  for  all  men!”  was  asked  of  a  little 
Peruvian  in  a  mission  school.  “  Eo,  not  for  the 
Chileans,  ’ ?  was  the  reply,  1 1  but  for  every  one  else.  ’ 1  And 
the  teacher  could  not  make  him  retract  the  unorthodox 
and  ungenerous  statement. 

If  the  nitrate  beds  have  made  the  fields  of  Europe  to 
blossom  like  the  rose,  they  have  sown  bitter  dissensions 
and  unending  hate  between  the  Western  Eepublics  of 
South  America,  and  the  end  of  the  dispute  is  not  yet. 

Of  course  Chile  has  other  sources  of  wealth  beside 
guano  and  nitrate,  but  these  are  so  unique  and  exclusively 
Chilean,  that  they  seem  best  worth  describing. 

What  does  Chile  take  in  return  ?  A  look  into  the  hold 
of  our  steamer  would  answer  the  question  in  part.  Flour, 
kerosene  oil,  machinery,  locomotives,  cars,  electric  ap¬ 
pliances,  lumber  from  Oregon,  shoes  from  Massachusetts, 
furniture  from  Michigan,  and  a  vast  and  miscellaneous 
assortment  of  goods  from  Europe  that  has  come  across  the 
Isthmus  and  been  transhipped  to  our  steamer  at  Panama. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  Americans  still  have  much  to 


164  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


learn  about  the  South  American  trade  before  they  get 
their  full  share.  “  Tell  the  American  merchants,”  said  a 
prominent  railroad  man  of  Bolivia,  “that  their  represent¬ 
atives  here  must  learn  Spanish,  and  must  pack  their 
goods  better,  if  they  wish  the  trade.” 

Too  many  North  Americans  regard  all  South  Ameri¬ 
cans  as  “Dagos,”  and  treat  them  and  their  language  with 
the  contempt  which  the  word  implies.  As  for  the  bad 
condition  in  which  American  goods  arrive  in  these  ports, 
it  is  proverbial.  Articles  that  have  to  be  transhipped 
half  a  dozen  times,  dumped  into  the  lighters  that  roll  up 
and  down  on  the  heavy  swells  of  the  West  Coast,  often  ris¬ 
ing  or  falling  ten  or  fifteen  feet  as  the  swell  strikes  them 
or  leaves  them  ;  goods  that  have  to  be  handled  by  ignorant 
stevedores,  who  do  not  know  a  word  of  English  or  any  other 
written  language,  and  to  whom  “Fragile,”  “Handle 
with  care,”  “This  side  up,”  are  all  “Greek”  ; — such 
goods  are  packed  as  though  going  from  New  York  to 
Hoboken. 

I  have  just  seen  a  large  consignment  of  thousands  of 
American  pickaxes  unloaded.  The  iron  heads  were 
packed  in  ordinary  flour  barrels,  and  old  ones  at  that, 
apparently.  Before  they  reached  Antofagasta  the  heads 
were  knocked  out  and  the  sides  staved  in,  of  half  of  them, 
and  the  pickaxes  were  dropping  out  in  every  direction, 
sometimes  dropping  overboard  as  they  swung  from  the 
derrick  over  the  side  of  the  ship.  This  is  only  one  ex¬ 
ample  of  the  notoriously  bad  way  in  which  some  Amer¬ 
ican  merchants  ship  their  goods.  Until  a  reform  is  af¬ 
fected,  they  will  not  reap  their  fair  share  of  the  harvest 
of  South  American  wealth. 


XX 


VALPARAISO— THE  EARTHQUAKE-STRICKEN 


Valparaiso  and  San  Francisco — Xo  Insurance  Balm — The  Earthquake  at 


Ashore  and  What  It  Oasts — The  Scars  of  Valparaiso — The  Health  of 
the  City — The  Benefits  of  Outdoor  Life — How  the  Cemeteries  Gave 
np  the  Dead — Twenty-five  Seconds  and  Twenty-five  Years — Prices 
in  Chile— The  View  From  the  Top. 


AX  FRANCISCO.  Valparaiso,  Kingston, — in  this 


order  were  these  three  cities  smitten  by  the  direst 


of  all  calamities,  in  the  quaking  months  between 
April,  1906,  and  January,  1907,  and,  of  all  these  cities, 
Valparaiso  undoubtedly  suffered  the  most  severely.  To 
be  sure,  the  absolute  loss  'of  property  was  perhaps  no 
greater  than  in  San  Francisco,  but  the  relative  loss  was 
much  greater,  and  the  resources  behind  Valparaiso  are 
not  a  tithe  of  those  which  will  rebuild  San  Francisco. 

The  population  of  the  former  city  at  the  time  of  the 
earthquake  was  about  150,000  (the  estimates  vary  from 
130,000  to  180,000)  while  the  metropolis  of  California 
claimed  twice  as  many  people.  In  all  Chile  there  are  not 
four  millions  of  people,  less  than  the  population  of  Xew 
York  City,  while  nearly  eighty-four  millions  of  people 
are  interested  in,  and  in  a  sense  committed  to  the  re¬ 
building  of  San  Francisco. 

Conservative  people  estimate  the  damage  by  the  earth¬ 
quake  and  resulting  fire  in  Valparaiso  at  five  hundred 
million  Chilean  dollars  (say  $120,000,000  in  gold  at  the 
present  rate  of  exchange) — a  stunning  blow,  that,  to  any 
country,  to  have  so  much  property  wiped  out  in  a  day, 


165 


166  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


but  particularly  disheartening  to  a  country  whose  gov¬ 
ernment  is  none  too  stable  and  whose  currency  sometimes 
fluctuates  several  points  in  twenty-four  hours. 

Valparaiso’s  loss,  too,  was  an  utter  loss,  no  insurance 
balm  being  poured  upon  the  wound  as  in  San  Francisco, 
for  all  the  policies  contained  an  u  earthquake  clause,  ” 
and  I  understand  that  not  a  single  claim  has  been  settled 
or  is  likely  to  be  settled  on  any  kind  of  a  compromise. 

In  Kingston,  which  I  visited  only  ten  days  after  its 
destruction,  the  ruin  is  far  more  complete  than  either  in 
San  Francisco  or  Valparaiso,  for  not  a  store  or  a  church 
or  public  building  or  scarcely  a  home  was  habitable,  but 
then  Kingston  contained  scarcely  a  third  of  the  popula¬ 
tion  or  the  wealth  of  Valparaiso  and  the  absolute  loss 
was  much  smaller. 

In  Jamaica,  too,  the  severe  earthquake  was  very  largely 
confined  to  Kingston,  while  in  Chile  a  great  part  of  the 
Kepublic  was  shaken.  The  evidences  of  the  earthquake 
are  seen  in  demolished  houses,  tottering  walls,  wrecked 
railway  stations,  all  the  way  from  Valparaiso  to  Santiago, 
a  distance  of  more  than  150  miles.  Some  of  the  smaller 
towns  on  the  line  indeed  suffered  more  than  Valparaiso. 
Llai  Llai,  for  instance,  which  stands  at  the  juncture  of  the 
Trans- Andean  Railway,  was  almost  completely  demol¬ 
ished,  and  many  other  small  places  suffered  quite  as 
much. 

Santiago,  the  capital  and  the  most  beautiful  city  on 
the  west  coast  of  South  America,  largely  escaped,  though 
even  here  the  damage  amounted  to  millions  of  dollars, 
and  churches  with  cornices  and  pilasters  knocked  off, 
and  public  buildings  half  in  ruins,  are  common  sights. 
Compared  with  the  rude  shaking  of  Valparaiso,  however, 
Santiago  received  only  the  earthquake’s  love  pats. 

Yet,  as  one  approaches  Valparaiso  from  the  sea  on  a 
lovely  autumn  day  in  the  last  of  March,  one  cannot 


VALPARAISO 


167 


realize  that  he  is  gazing  at  a  city  that  lost  in  a  single 
night  five  thousand  of  its  people  and  hundreds  of  mil¬ 
lions  of  its  wealth,  and  that  many  of  its  business  streets 
are  still  lined  with  rent  and  charred  and  blackened 
ruins. 

The  city  lies  on  the  slopes  of  steep  hills  that  rise  almost 
from  the  water’s  edge,  and,  after  a  journey  of  twenty- 
eight  days  down  the  barrenest  coast  in  the  world,  where 
a  tree  or  a  blade  of  grass  would  have  rejoiced  the  sore 
eyes  of  the  traveller,  the  comparative  verdure  of  the 
Valparaiso  hills  and  the  patches  of  green  that  indicate 
her  little  parks,  are  welcomed  with  delight.  We  even 
think  that  she  deserves  her  name,  the  “  Vale  of  Para¬ 
dise,”  until  a  nearer  view  shows  how  long  and  black  a 
trail  the  earthquake  serpent  has  left  in  this  Paradise. 

To  be  sure,  the  situation  is  by  no  means  as  fine  as  that 
of  San  Francisco,  but  the  best  preparation  in  the  world 
to  enjoy  the  beauties  of  Valparaiso  is  the  interminable, 
monotonous  journey  down  the  west  coast  of  South 
America,  and  I  can  forgive  the  glowing  newspaper  ac¬ 
counts  I  have  read,  which  make  this  city  the  peer  of  any 
of  the  great  seaports  of  the  world,  from  the  Golden  Horn 
to  the  Golden  Gate. 

As  our  ship  drops  anchor  and  the  flag  is  hoisted  to 
show  that  we  have  been  u Received”  by  the  captain  of 
the  port,  a  new  Spanish  armada  bears  down  upon  us.  At 
least  a  hundred  row  boats,  each  manned  by  three  or  four 
piratical-looking  longshoremen,  start  as  though  a  racing 
gun  had  been  fired,  each  trying  to  get  to  the  ship  first 
that  he  may  secure  a  helpless  passenger  and  his  baggage. 
In  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time  they  have  reached 
the  ship,  swarmed  up  the  side,  pushing,  crowding,  fight¬ 
ing,  cursing  one  another. 

The  passengers  are  at  their  mercy,  unless  some  kind 
friends  from  the  shore  come  to  the  rescue,  as  in  our  case. 


168  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


There  is  no  lawful  tariff  of  charges  for  landing,  or,  if 
there  is,  it  is  never  regarded,  and  the  extortion  of  these 
highwaymen  of  the  harbour,  if  I  may  be  excused  an 
Hibernicism,  is  most  unblushing.  They  will  often 
charge  $60  (Chilean)  for  landing  two  or  three  people  and 
their  baggage,  and  one  must  make  the  best  bargain  he 
can.  Before  my  friends  arrived,  I  had  beaten  the  least 
piratical  looking  of  these  harpies  down  to  $15  Chilean 
(about  $4  gold)  which  I  afterwards  learned  was  three 
times  too  much.  However,  we  were  so  glad  to  get  ashore 
at  all,  that  for  the  moment  money  was  no  object,  any 
more  than  it  would  be  in  getting  from  purgatory  into  the 
real  vale  of  Paradise. 

The  landing  was  at  a  miserable,  slippery,  surf- washed 
pier,  and  is  quite  impossible  in  stormy  weather. 

Almost  as  soon  as  we  reach  the  pier,  the  scars  and 
wounds  of  Valparaiso  become  visible.  Whole  streets  in 
the  busiest  section  of  the  city  are  still  blackened  ruins, 
where,  until  within  a  very  few  weeks,  fire  has  been 
smouldering.  Acres  and  acres  of  the  business  section 
are  to-day  covered  with  burned  bricks,  blackened  rafters 
and  ashes,  with  no  attempt  as  yet  to  even  clear  away  the 
debris,  much  less  to  rebuild  the  waste  places.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars  worth  of  goods  of  all  kinds  are 
piled  up  in  the  open  air ;  grain,  provisions,  dry  goods, 
furniture,  household  utensils,  guarded  from  the  looters 
as  well  as  possible  by  armed  police  and  soldiers. 

Fortunately,  as  yet  there  has  been  no  rain  since  the 
earthquake,  but  when  the  rainy  season  sets  in,  as  it  is 
likely  to  do  very  soon,  the  suffering  of  many  of  the  poor 
people  still  living  in  temporary  shacks  is  likely  to  be 
intense. 

Some  of  the  wider  streets  for  miles  of  their  length  are 
lined  with  huts  built  of  corrugated  iron,  which,  for 
months,  have  furnished  shelter  for  thousands  of  people. 


VALPARAISO 


169 


Here  in  little  seven-by-nine  shelters  they  cook  and  eat 
and  sleep.  Here  babies  are  born  and  babies  die.  Here 
people  well  and  sick  are  herded  together,  and  here  they 
are  likely  to  exist  for  months  to  come. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  sanitary  authorities  that  as  yet 
no  great  epidemic  has  broken  out.  In  fact  the  general 
health  of  the  city  is  excellent,  and  it  is  said  that  many 
people  of  the  better  families  have  been  greatly  benefited 
by  the  outdoor  air  they  have  been  forced  to  breathe  since 
their  homes  have  fallen  down  and  they  have  taken  to 
camp  life. 

Marvellous  stories  are  told  of  the  recovery  of  helpless 
invalids,  of  feeble  children  and  puny  babies  even,  who, 
since  the  earthquake  have  been  forced  to  take  the 
“fresh  air  treatment.”  Many  feathers  may  be  plucked 
in  Valparaiso  to-day  for  the  caps  of  those  who  advocate 
camp  life  and  outdoor  sleeping  platforms. 

A  ride  around  the  city  on  the  top  of  a  street  car  is 
most  interesting  in  spite  of  the  sad  desolation  one  sees 
everywhere.  Here  is  a  street  stretching  its  grim  and 
ruined  length  ahead  of  one  for  fully  half  a  mile  without 
a  turn  and  without  a  single  habitable  house  or  store  as  far 
as  one  can  see  on  either  side.  There  is  a  great  church,  the 
outer  walls  caved  in  and  heaps  of  unsightly  rubbish 
where  chancel  and  altar  used  to  be.  Near  by  is  a  school, 
or  the  blackened  walls  of  a  former  school  building, 
teacher7  s  desk  and  scholars’  forms  alike  buried  under  a 
mountain  of  adobe  bricks  and  mud,  which  had  been  used 
for  plaster.  Here  is  a  statue  of  Lord  Cochrane,  the  de¬ 
liverer  of  the  Chileans  from  Spanish  rule,  rising  from  the 
roof  of  a  “tin”  (corrugated  iron)  house,  which  has  been 
built  around  the  statue  up  to  the  top  of  the  pedestal. 

In  another  place  the  marble  effigy  of  the  patriot  Prat, 
so  much  honoured  in  Chile,  is  standing,  but  he  has  lost 
his  sword,  wrenched  out  of  his  hand  by  the  earthquake, 


170  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


while  it  injured  the  statue  in  no  other  way, — so  many 
strange  pranks  did  the  terrible  “terremoto  y 7  play. 

Most  gruesome  of  all  were  the  scenes  in  the  cemetery 
where  monuments  were  overthrown,  graves  were  opened, 
and  rows  of  tombs,  built  like  the  Roman  columbarium, 
vomited  forth  their  dead.  Many  of  these  were  tem¬ 
porary  niches  for  the  dead,  hired  for  a  year  and  in¬ 
securely  sealed,  and  when  the  great  earthquake  came, 
the  corpses  shot  out  of  their  narrow  houses,  as  though 
the  day  of  resurrection  had  come  indeed.  Even  in 
Santiago,  so  far  away,  the  dead  were  disturbed  in  their 
last  resting-place,  and  great  damage  was  done  in  the 
cemetery,  which  is  probably  the  most  beautiful  in  the 
western  continent, — certainly  in  North  America  we  have 
nothing  equal  to  it  in  the  magnificence  and  sculptured 
beauty  of  the  tombs. 

But  to  return  to  Valparaiso — a  ride  around  the  loop 
on  the  top  of  an  electric  car  convinces  one  that  those 
who  say  that  the  city  will  not  recover  from  the  twenty- 
five  seconds  of  earthquake  shock  in  five  and  twenty  years, 
are  not  far  wrong.  Certainly,  at  the  present  rate  of 
progress  it  will  be  fully  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the 
last  vestiges  of  the  earthquake  disappear,  but  these  South 
American  cities,  I  am  told,  have  a  fashion  of  lying  dor¬ 
mant  for  a  time,  and  then  taking  a  tremendous  spurt, 
and  accomplishing  the  work  of  a  decade  in  a  year ;  so 
Valparaiso  may  falsify  all  pessimistic  predictions  and 
rise  from  her  ruins  and  her  ashes  far  sooner  than  even 
her  friends  predict. 

Not  that  Valparaiso  is  dormant.  Much  building  is 
going  on,  but  the  high  prices  of  materials  and  of  labour 
are  at  present  a  great  handicap.  Lumber  is  brought 
from  Southern  Chile,  five  hundred  miles  away.  It  has 
greatly  risen  in  price,  and  is  still  scarce  at  any  price. 
Labour  is  still  scarcer  and  higher  than  materials.  Work- 


VALPARAISO 


171 


men  who  were  glad  to  get  $1.50  a  day  a  year  ago,  now 
demand  $6.  Carpenters  ask  $8  and  even  $10  and  a  friend 
told  me  of  one  workman  whom  he  found  lying  in  bed  at 
ten  o’clock  in  the  morning  because  the  best  offer  he  had 
had  for  his  day’s  service  was  only  $6. 

To  be  sure,  the  rate  of  exchange  and  the  rise  of  gold  in 
part  accounts  for  this,  since  the  same  money  does  not  buy 
so  much  as  it  did  a  year  ago.  A  five  dollar  American 
bill  will  purchase  nineteen  Chilean  dollar  bills,  and  no 
one  knows  when  the  rise  of  the  rate  of  exchange  will  stop. 
It  is  changed  nearly  every  day,  Chilean  currency  steadily 
dropping  with  each  fresh  issue  of  paper  money.  Here  is 
a  country  that  is  trying  the  greenback  remedy  with  a 
vengeance,  and  plunging  deeper  into  the  financial  mire 
with  every  step. 

Yet,  considering  the  rate  of  exchange,  some  things  are 
very  cheap.  A  street  car  ride  in  Valparaiso  costs  five 
cents, — a  cent  and  a  quarter  in  our  money  j  a  postage 
stamp  for  a  foreign  country  ten  cents,  two  and  a  quarter 
cents  gold  ;  postage  for  a  foreign  post  card  is  three-quar¬ 
ters  of  a  cent  gold,  while  in  Bolivia  it  costs  ten  cents  gold 
to  send  a  foreign  letter  and  three  cents  to  send  a  foreign 
post  card,  and  in  the  Argentine  Republic  postage  on  for¬ 
eign  mail  is  double  the  cost  of  the  same  articles  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Andes. 

Living  at  the  hotels  of  Chile  is  by  no  means  extrava¬ 
gantly  expensive,  and  for  two  dollars  gold,  a  day,  one 
can  secure  as  good  accommodations  as  he  can  get  for  four 
dollars  in  the  neighbouring  republic  of  Argentine,  where 
all  charges  of  the  sort  are  on  an  exorbitant  scale. 

There  are  not  a  few  who  predict  ruin,  financial,  in¬ 
dustrial  and  political,  for  Chile.  The  republic  is  cer¬ 
tainly  passing  through  troubled  seas,  but  I  believe  she 
will  weather  this  gale,  as  she  has  many  another. 

An  old  resident  of  Valparaiso  said  to  me  :  “Chile  is 


172  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


like  a  young  spendthrift.  She  has  wasted  her  substance 
in  riotous  living.  She  took  by  force  the  nitrate  provinces 
and  the  guano  islands  from  Peru,  thus  enormously  in¬ 
creasing  her  revenue,  but  instead  of  establishing  her 
credit  and  securing  a  balance  against  a  time  of  need,  she 
wasted  it  on  the  army  and  navy  and  thievish  officials, 
and  now  she  is  at  the  mercy  of  her  creditors.  Prosperity 
knocked  once  at  the  door  of  Chile,  but  there  was  no  one 
at  home  to  receive  her,  and  she  has  gone  away  forever.” 

Most  of  my  friends,  however,  were  not  so  pessimistic, 
and  with  the  limited  knowledge  I  could  gather  during  my 
stay,  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  the  optimists.  There  is 
certainly  a  strong,  enterprising  body  of  citizens,  left  to 
build  up  a  new  Chile.  Much  foreign  capital  is  already 
invested  there,  and  more  is  coming. 

The  government,  though  beset  with  difficulties,  and 
rent  by  dissensions,  is  apparently  stable,  and  His  Excel¬ 
lency,  President  Pedro  Montt,  whom  I  had  the  honour  of 
meeting,  seemed  to  me  a  safe  and  sensible,  if  not  a  brill¬ 
iant,  executive. 

After  all,  the  point  of  view  has  much  to  do  with  one’s 
estimate  of  the  future  of  Chile  or  any  other  country.  The 
American  muck-raker  would  make  any  foreigner  believe 
that  our  own  country  was  nearing  the  last  ditch.  Thank 
fortune,  the  professional  muck-raker  in  any  country  soon 
discredits  himself  by  his  unfulfilled  prophecies. 

Before  leaving  Valparaiso,  I  went  up  the  steep  hill 
which  forms  a  background  to  the  city,  by  one  of  the  ten 
hydraulic  elevators  which  connect  the  upper  city  with 
her  harbour.  From  the  top  of  the  u  lift”  I  could  see  the 
wide  bay  with  its  innumerable  steamers,  sailing  ships, 
and  lighters.  All  around  were  the  beautiful  houses  and 
gardens  of  the  wealthier  Valparaisans ;  in  the  distance 
the  fertile  fields  and  irrigated  farms,  producing  anything 
that  any  soil  will  grow.  The  seams  and  gashes  made  by 


VALPARAISO 


173 


the  awful  earthquake  and  fire  in  the  business  section  of 
the  city  were  largely  hidden,  for  the  upper  city  suffered 
but  little. 

Then  I  said  to  myself :  “This  is  the  true  viewpoint 
for  Valparaiso  and  Chile,  not  down  among  the  fallen 
bricks  and  dust  and  dirt  of  the  ruins,  but  from  this  fresh, 
breezy  landing,  one  can  see  what  the  city  will  yet  be.” 

It  can  never  be  blotted  out.  There  will  always  be  a 
reason  for  a  great  commercial  metropolis  on  this  coast. 
Chile,  with  its  vast  stores  of  copper,  nitrate  and  agri¬ 
cultural  produce  ;  with  its  2, 600  miles  of  seacoast ;  with 
its  vigorous,  hardy,  patriotic  people,  has  yet  an  im¬ 
portant  place  to  fill  in  the  family  of  nations.  She  loves 
liberty,  fosters  education,  guarantees  religious  equality, 
and  welcomes  foreign  enterprise  and  capital.  She  has 
had  a  notable  past ;  she  will  have  a  more  notable  future. 
Long  may  the  lone  star  flag  of  Chile  wave  over  a  united, 
prosperous  and  free  people  ! 


XXI 


THE  JAMESTOWN  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 

Valdivia  at  Santiago— The  Gem  of  the  West  Coast — Some  Beautiful  Parks 
— Santa  Lucia  the  Lovely — The  Westminster  Abbey  of  Chile — The 
Grave  of  O’Higgins — Santiago  in  Holy  Week — Women  in  Black  Man¬ 
tas — The  Sacred  Images  in  Procession — The  Institute  Ingles. 

SOUTH  AMEBIC  A  has  a  Jamestown  as  well  as 
North  America,  for  Santiago  is  the  Spanish  for 
St.  James  and  also  for  plain  “James.”  Santiago, 
too,  is  one  of  the  oldest  cities  of  South  America,  as  James¬ 
town  is  of  North  America  ;  for  here  in  the  southern  con¬ 
tinent,  before  Virginia  was  settled,  Valdivia,  the  great 
Spanish  general,  set  up  his  standards  on  Santa  Lucia,  the 
wonderful  rock  in  the  centre  of  Santiago,  defied  the  In¬ 
dians,  and  established  the  Spanish  power  for  nearly  three 
centuries  in  Chile. 

But  here  ends  the  comparison  between  the  Jamestown 
of  the  south  and  the  Jamestown  of  the  north.  The  one 
in  the  north  has  largely  stagnated,  and  is  interesting 
chiefly  because  of  its  history.  The  city  of  the  south  has 
grown  in  importance,  wealth  and  beauty  with  every  dec¬ 
ade,  until  now  it  is  by  far  the  finest  and  most  prosper¬ 
ous  city  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America. 

The  open  door  of  Santiago  from  the  sea  is  Valparaiso, 
a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  distant ;  but  the  doorway  does 
not  fully  prepare  one  for  the  beautiful  city  beyond,  for 
Valparaiso  is  blackened  and  scarred  and  rent  by  the  ter¬ 
rible  earthquake  and  awful  fire  which  in  August  of  1906 
nearly  wiped  it  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Then  comes  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  dusty  railway 

174 


THE  JAMESTOWN  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  175 


journey  through  a  country  which  has  not,  as  I  write,  had  a 
drop  of  rain  for  nearly  nine  months.  After  climbing  to  a 
height  of  some  two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea  we  come 
out  into  a  vast,  well-watered,  fertile  plain  surrounded 
by  snow-capped  mountains. 

In  the  midst  of  this  plain  is  Santiago,  the  capital  of 
Chile,  the  gem  of  the  Pacific  slope.  Its  great  municipal 
buildings,  its  imposing  cathedral  and  many  fine  churches, 
its  tree-lined  streets,  its  flower- decked  parks,  all  impress 
one  with  a  kind  of  childish  wonder  after  the  long  journey 
down  the  barren,  rainless  coast ;  and  the  traveller  is  in¬ 
clined  to  pinch  himself  and  ask  his  neighbour  whether  he 
is  really  awake  and  whether  this  is  truly  the  same  country 
in  which  he  has  been  travelling  so  long. 

Undoubtedly  Lima  is  a  fine  and  interesting  city,  and  La 
Paz  has  its  own  peculiar  attractions ;  but  the  tiresome 
journey  along  the  interminable  Chilean  coast,  with  its  in¬ 
significant  nitrate  ports,  its  tedious  waits  while  the 
steamer  heaves  up  and  down,  all  day  and  all  night,  on 
the  long  Pacific  swell,  when  one  has  nothing  to  look  at 
but  the  gaunt,  verdureless  Andes,  has  dimmed  the  recol¬ 
lection  of  these  cities,  and  has  prepared  one  to  view  with 
most  extravagant  delight  a  really  fine  city  that  need  not 
fear  comparison  with  the  best  in  any  continent. 

To  be  sure,  Santiago  remembers  that  it  is  in  the  earth¬ 
quake  zone,  and  does  not  indulge  in  skyscrapers,  and 
most  of  the  houses  are  built  of  adobe  bricks  covered  with 
plaster  ;  but  they  are  kept  well  painted  or  whitewashed, 
and  present  a  very  comely  appearance,  while  there  are 
enough  really  fine  specimens  of  architecture  in  churches, 
private  dwellings,  and  public  buildings  to  relieve  the 
monotony  of  the  low,  flat-roofed  buildings,  and  to  give  the 
impression  to  the  stranger  that  he  is  in  one  of  the  first- 
class  cities  of  the  world. 

Let  us  take  two  or  three  excursions  together  with  Dr. 


176  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Browning,  our  kind  host,  the  principal  of  the  famous 
boys’  school,  the  Institute  Ingles ,  of  Santiago. 

First,  we  will  see  some  of  the  parks.  These  are 
worthy  of  any  city.  Even  Boston,  which  rightfully 
claims  to  have  the  finest  park  system  in  the  world,  would 
not  blush  to  own  them.  They  have  many  features,  too, 
that  Boston’s  parks,  owing  to  their  northern  latitude, 
cannot  boast, — splendid  palms  and  a  multitude  of  semi- 
tropical  plants  and  flowers. 

But  the  park  of  parks,  a  public  recreation -ground  that 
cannot  be  matched  in  the  whole  world,  is  Santa  Lucia. 
This,  as  I  have  said,  is  a  tremendous  isolated  rock,  rising 
some  five  hundred  feet  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city. 
There  are  no  other  elevations  for  miles  around,  and  it 
seems  as  if  this  great  pinnacle  of  stone  had  been  dropped 
down  out  of  heaven  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  this  wide, 
flat  plain. 

The  scanty  soil  of  Santa  Lucia  has  been  supplemented 
by  the  gardeners  ;  trees  have  been  planted  on  it  that  have 
grown  to  great  size  ;  brilliant  creepers  trail  over  the  rocks, 
covering  their  gaunt  sides,  and  bright  flowers  bloom  in 
every  crevice  and  cranny.  Man  has  supplemented  nature 
in  making  Santa  Lucia  the  most  beautiful  city  breathing- 
place  in  all  the  Americas.  Strings  of  electric  lights  at 
night  take  the  place  of  the  flowers  by  day.  Fountains 
and  marble  statues  appear  at  every  unexpected  corner. 
Cool  grottoes  invite  one  to  linger  in  their  shade  on  the 
upward  climb,  and  a  gurgling  brook  that  comes  leaping 
down  the  hillside  adds  its  music  to  the  songs  of  the  birds 
in  the  trees. 

And  the  view  from  the  top  !  Who  can  describe  it  1 
The  great  city  with  its  nearly  half-million  of  inhabitants 
stretches  at  our  feet,  the  parks  and  tree-lined  avenues 
plainly  picked  out  in  green.  Beyond  lies  the  great  smil¬ 
ing,  fertile  plain  that  must  have  rejoiced  the  eyes  of  the 


THE  JAMESTOWN  OF  SOUTH  AMEKICA  177 


conquering  Spaniards  350  years  ago,  as  well  as  all  their 
descendants  since. 

In  the  near  distance  are  some  shapely  mountains  per¬ 
haps  seven  or  eight  thousand  feet  high,  on  one  of  which 
the  University  of  California  has  an  observatory  for 
photographing  the  stars.  Farther  off  on  the  horizon  are 
the  great  snow-clad  giants  of  the  Andes,  rising  twenty 
thousand  feet  and  more  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and 
seeming  to  hem  in  the  city  on  all  sides.  Beautiful  for 
situation,  if  not  the  joy  of  the  whole  earth,  is  this  city  of 
St.  James. 

If  we  linger  too  long  on  Santa  Lucia,  we  shall  not 
have  time  for  the  other  beauties  of  Santiago,  one  of  which 
is  the  great  cemetery,  the  Westminster  Abbey  of  Chile. 
There  is  a  Boman  Catholic  and  also  a  Protestant  cemetery, 
but  what  may  be  called  the  civic  cemetery  is  the  most 
ornate.  Never  in  my  life  have  I  seen  such  a  multitude 
of  splendid  monuments  in  one  cemetery.  The  celebrated 
Campo  Santo  of  Genoa,  with  its  lugubrious  weeping 
statues,  is  a  small,  poor  burying- ground  when  compared 
to  the  great  home  of  the  dead  in  Santiago.  Here  many  of 
the  most  prominent  families  of  Chile  have  found  their  last 
home.  Presidents,  distinguished  educators,  statesmen, 
millionaires,  and  soldiers,  some  of  them  bitter  enemies  in 
life,  have  found  a  common  resting-place  here. 

Many  graves  are  marked  by  great  structures,  almost 
palaces,  for  the  dead,  while  others  are  marked  by  beauti¬ 
ful  marble  statues  chiselled  in  Italy  by  the  best  sculptors. 
I  was  much  interested  in  the  splendid  tomb  of  the  Irish 
liberator,  O’ Higgins  (liberator  of  Chile,  not  Ireland),  the 
raw  Irish  lad  who  developed  such  military  and  executive 
genius,  and  who  left  a  name  in  Chile  as  splendid  as  his 
tomb. 

The  private  life  of  “Oeegins,”  as  the  Chileans  call 
him,  would  not  bear  very  close  investigation  ;  but  in  ac- 


178  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


cordance  with  the  old  proverb,  no  hint  of  this  is  found 
in  the  eulogy  carved  on  his  magnificent  mausoleum. 

Amid  all  this  obituary  splendour  I  could  not  feel  many 
emotions  of  tenderness  or  solemnity,  and  should  wish  my 
grave  on  a  little  quiet  country  hillside  rather  than  in  a 
gilded,  sculptured  tomb  of  Santiago. 

Our  journey  took  us  to  Santiago  in  Holy  Week,  when 
the  city  was  given  over,  as  at  no  other  time,  to  religious 
observances.  On  Thursday  of  Passion  Week  it  was  in¬ 
deed  a  strange  and  funereal  sight  that  we  gazed  upon. 
Business  was  going  on,  but  in  a  quiet,  subdued  way, 
while  all  the  city  seemed  to  be  in  mourning.  This  effect 
was  produced  largely  by  the  women,  all  of  whom  seemed 
to  be  on  the  street  arrayed  in  black  dresses  with  black 
1  ‘mantas”  over  their  heads.  Not  a  woman  in  Santiago 
able  to  leave  her  house  who  did  not  go  to  church  on 
Thursday  and  Friday  of  Holy  Week,  and  not  one  who 
was  not  in  funeral  garb.  Tens  of  thousands  of  women  ; 
every  street  and  square  filled  with  them,  and  every  one 
in  mourning !  The  very  occasional  picture  hat  of  an 
American  or  English  woman  looked  as  out  of  place  as  a 
wedding  wreath  at  a  burial.  Even  most  foreign  women 
wore  the  black  manta  over  their  heads  so  as  not  to  be 
too  conspicuous,  and  to  gain  admission  to  the  churches  ; 
for  this  is  the  universal  church  head-gear  in  Catholic 
South  America,  and  on  the  west  coast  a  woman  wearing 
a  hat  is  likely  to  be  mobbed  if  she  ventures  into  a 
church. 

The  great  Jesuit  church  was  the  centre  of  attraction  on 
Good  Friday.  All  stores  were  closed,  all  business  sus¬ 
pended  ;  and  the  people  flocked  by  the  tens  of  thousands 
to  see  the  images  brought  out  for  their  annual  procession. 
A  dozen  great  floats  representing  our  Lord  in  Gethsem- 
ane,  our  Lord  betrayed,  scourged,  and  finally  on  the 
cross,  were  borne,  each  one,  on  the  backs  of  scores  of 


THE  JAMESTOWN  OF  SOUTH  AMEEIOA  179 


groaning,  perspiring  men,  who  could  carry  them  only  a 
few  feet  before  they  set  them  down  to  rest.  Thus  they 
were  borne  through  the  streets  while  the  assembled 
thousands  that  lined  the  sidewalks  stood  with  uncovered 
heads  in  reverent  silence  as  they  looked  upon  these  crude 
representations  of  our  Lord’s  last  sufferings. 

I  must  say  that  the  scene  was  impressive  in  a  way,  and 
seemed  to  solemnize  and,  for  a  moment  at  least,  hush 
the  crowd.  An  American  young  lady  in  our  party  was 
made  faint  for  a  moment  by  the  stifling  crowd  and  smells, 
and  had  to  retire  to  the  shelter  of  a  neighbouring  door¬ 
way.  “  A  judgment  on  the  heretic,”  some  women  in  the 
crowd  were  heard  to  say:  “she  could  not  endure  the 
presence  of  the  Lord.” 

The  superstition  and  idolatry  mixed  up  with  such  a 
celebration  are  hard  for  a  North  American  to  under¬ 
stand.  They  are  hinted  at  by  an  inscription  which  I 
copied  from  the  pedestal  of  a  statue  of  Christ  on  the 
cross  in  the  city  of  Santiago,  which,  translated,  read  as 
follows  :  11  By  'permission  of  the  Archbishop  of  Santiago 

an  indulgence  of  eighty  days ,  which  may  be  applied  to  the 
dead ,  will  be  granted  to  any  one  who  will  say  an  Ave  Maria 
or  the  creed  before  this  statue  of  the  crucified  Christ .” 

Who  will  say  that  Protestant  schools  and  churches  are 
not  needed  in  such  a  country,  where  the  highest  ecclesi¬ 
astical  authority  grants  indulgences  to  any  dead  scoundrel 
whose  friends  will  say  a  “Hail  Mary”  before  a  stone 
image  of  Mary’s  Son,  whose  authoritative  word  concern¬ 
ing  salvation  was,  “He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath 
everlasting  life.” 

It  is  good  to  turn  from  such  travesties  of  religion  as 
these  must  seem  to  every  Protestant  to  the  spiritual  faith 
represented  by  the  Presbyterian  and  Methodist  missions. 
The  “Institute  Ingles,”  founded  by  the  Presbyterians, 
is  a  splendid  school  under  the  care  of  Dr.  W.  E.  Brown- 


180  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


ing,  where  nearly  three  hundred  boys  from  the  best 
families  of  Chile,  Peru,  and  Bolivia  are  trained  for  large 
usefulness  in  their  respective  countries.  It  will  do  for 
these  west  coast  countries  what  Robert  College  is  doing 
for  Turkey  and  the  Balkan  states.  The  Presbyterians, 
too,  have  two  good  Spanish  churches  and  several  preach¬ 
ing  stations  in  Santiago.  The  Methodists  also  are  doing 
a  large  work,  and  their  Santiago  college  for  girls  is  a 
noted  institution  in  Chile. 

One  more  incident  of  my  stay  in  Santiago  I  may  here 
relate,  and  that  was  an  interview  with  His  Excellency, 
Pedro  Montt,  president  of  the  republic.  He  is  an  able 
and  upright  man,  the  son  of  one  of  Chile’s  greatest 
presidents.  He  looks  not  unlike  President  Diaz  of 
Mexico,  and  his  swarthy  face,  like  that  of  Mexico’s 
president,  declares  his  partial  Indian  descent.  He  is 
most  affable  and  courteous,  and  expressed  his  great 
interest  in  temperance  measures,  and  his  desire  to  keep 
strong  drink  away  from  the  uncivilized  races  in  his 
domain,  a  matter  in  which  I  was  much  interested. 

Our  genial  and  popular  American  minister,  Mr.  John 
Hicks,  of  Wisconsin,  accompanied  me  to  the  palace,  and 
told  President  Montt  about  Christian  Endeavour  and 
its  nearly  four  millions  of  members. 

“Ah,”  said  His  Excellency,  “more  people  in  this 
society  than  in  all  Chile.” 

“Yes,  Mr.  President,”  I  replied,  “and  some  of  them 
are  in  Chile.”  May  a  still  larger  proportion  of  one 
“million”  soon  be  found  in  Chile,  this  free  and  beautiful 
republic  of  the  Pacific  slope. 


xxn 


THE  FAMOUS  JOURNEY  ACROSS  THE  ANDES 

The  Only  Practicable  Route  Across  South  America — The  First  Hundred 
and  Fifty  Miles— A  Night  in  Los  Andes— An  Early  Start— A  Delicious 
Climate — The  Soldier’s  Leap — Starting  on  the  Coach  Journey — The 
Andean  Coach — Views  on  the  Way— The  Numberless  Zigzags — A 
Wonderful  Statue— On  Argentine  Soil— A  Perilous  Descent— A 
Journey  to  be  Remembered. 

THEBE  is  as  yet  but  one  practicable  route  across 
South  America,  and  that  is  in  about  south 
latitude  35°,  where  the  continent  narrows  to  a 
width  of  some  900  miles,  and  where  it  is  divided  between 
the  two  rival  powers  of  Chile  and  Argentina. 

Of  course  there  are  other  passes,  if  one  wishes  to  risk 
the  dangers  and  hardships  of  a  journey  of  many  weeks  on 
mule-back,  over  the  difficult  mountain  trails,  and  down 
the  interminable  miasmatic  stretches  of  the  Amazon  or 
the  La  Plata  to  the  sea,  but,  speaking  in  general  terms, 
the  only  way  for  the  ordinary  traveller  to  cross  South 
America  is  to  journey  down  the  dreary  desert  of  the  west 
coast  by  steamer  for  three  thousand  miles  from  Panama, 
until  he  reaches  Valparaiso,  and  then  by  rail  and  coach, 
or  on  the  back  of  the  patient  mule,  cross  from  the  Pacific 
over  the  rocky  backbone  of  the  continent  to  Buenos  Ayres 
on  the  Atlantic  coast. 

Even  this  route  is  difficult  and  hazardous  enough  to 
satisfy  any  one  whose  bump  of  adventure  is  not  ab¬ 
normally  developed. 

The  first  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  journey  from 
Valparaiso  presents  no  difficulties  and  little  excitement. 

181 


182  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


A  comfortable  Chilean  train,  built  on  the  American  plan 
and  drawn  by  a  German  engine,  hurries  one  away  from 
the  dilapidation  and  ruin  of  earthquake-shaken  Valpa¬ 
raiso,  over  the  foot-hills  of  the  Andes,  and  through  the 
dusty  valleys  of  Chile,  where  (in  March)  it  has  not  rained 
for  at  least  seven  months. 

One  can  make  himself  comfortable  in  a  Pullman  draw¬ 
ing  room  car  if  his  inclination  is  for  luxury,  and  eat  his 
dinner  in  a  well-equipped  dining  car.  The  heat  and  dust 
and  other  discomforts  of  travel  are  further  relieved  by 
clusters  of  delicious  Muscatel  and  Black  Hamburg  grapes 
(or  varieties  very  much  like  them),  by  baskets  of  fine 
purple  figs,  and  good  looking,  but  poor  tasting,  peaches, 
pears  and  apples,  which  can  be  bought  for  a  few  cents  at 
almost  any  station.  This  (March)  is  the  fall  of  the  year, 
it  must  be  remembered,  and  all  kinds  of  fruits  are  in  their 
glory. 

At  Llai  Llai  (which,  being  interpreted,  means  Windy 
Windy)  is  the  junction  for  Santiago,  where  passengers 
from  the  beautiful  capital  of  Chile  join  our  train  which 
keeps  on,  headed  for  the  high  mountains,  until  it  reaches 
Los  Andes,  where  we  must  stop  for  the  night. 

If  the  traveller  has  tears  let  him  prepare  to  shed  them 
now,  for  his  serious  troubles  begin  at  this  point.  In  the 
first  place,  he  is  bundled  out  of  the  train  here  in  the  dead 
of  night,  and  must  find  a  carriage  of  some  sort,  more  or 
less  dilapidated,  which  will  rattle  his  bones  over  the 
stones  of  Los  Andes  at  a  tremendous  pace  for  about  a 
mile,  until  he  reaches  a  very  poor  inn  with  a  very  big 
name, — the  “  Grand  Hotel  Central.” 

Here  he  will  be  shown  a  not  over- clean  bed  in  a  dirty 
room,  perhaps  occupied  (the  room,  not  the  bed)  by  three 
or  four  other  fellow  beings.  But  he  is  so  dead  tired  that 
he  would  be  thankful  for  a  rug  on  the  floor.  At  mid¬ 
night  he  turns  in,  and  at  3:30  A.  M.  the  landlord  sticks 


FAMOUS  JOURNEY  ACROSS  THE  ANDES  183 


his  head  through  a  hole  in  the  curtain  which  divides  his 
sleeping  apartment  from  the  family  bedroom,  and  tells 
him  that  it  is  time  to  get  up,  as  the  coach  goes  to  the  train 
in  half  an  hour. 

The  traveller  rubs  open  his  sleepy  eyes  which  he  feels 
have  only  just  closed,  dresses  hastily,  drinks  a  cup  of 
execrable  coffee  and  eats  a  crust  of  hard  bread  cut  from  the 
loaf  the  day  before,  pays  eight  dollars  in  Chilean  money 
for  this  accommodation,  and  is  again  rattled  over  the 
stones,  through  the  black  darkness  that  comes  before 
dawn,  to  the  railway  station.  Here  he  finds  a  comfort¬ 
able  little  narrow  gauge  train  of  the  rack  and  pinion 
mountain  road  awaiting  him,  and  while  it  is  yet  pitch 
dark  the  train  moves  off  up  the  mountains  to  Juncal, 
the  present  terminus  of  the  railway  on  the  Chilean  side 
of  the  Andes. 

An  hour  after  the  train  starts  the  stars  fade  out,  and  the 
early  dawn  breaks  over  the  eastern  hills.  First  they 
grow  gray  and  cold,  the  gray  turns  to  steel-blue,  the  blue 
to  a  rosy  pink,  and,  at  last,  the  highest  peaks  are  lit  by 
the  earliest  rays  of  the  sun,  and  another  glorious  day  has 
begun  in  the  high  Andes.  Indeed,  all  the  days  are  glori¬ 
ous  in  this  region  at  this  time  of  year.  Never  is  there  a 
rain-storm,  almost  never  a  cloud  in  the  sky. 

Few  countries  have  such  a  delicious  climate  as  Chile. 
It  is  seldom  too  hot  and  rarely  too  cold.  The  Antarctic 
current  cools  the  air  along  the  shore,  and  the  mountain 
breezes  temper  the  air  in  the  interior.  Nothing  could  be 
more  charming  than  this  railway  ride.  On  the  Chilean 
side  of  the  lower  mountains,  there  is  a  little  vegetation  in 
spite  of  the  long  rainless  season,  and  around  the  poor  lit¬ 
tle  mud  huts,  which  one  sometimes  sees,  climb  creepers 
and  flowering  vines,  as  though  nature  was  doing  her  best 
to  cover  up  their  squalor. 

Everywhere  the  mountains  grow  from  grand  to  grander. 


184  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Great  white  peaks  that  seem  to  leap  20,000  feet  into  the 
air,  occasionally  burst  upon  the  view.  In  one  place  the 
train  rushes  through  a  narrow  gorge  over  a  shelf  cut  out 
of  the  solid  mountainside,  with  a  brawling  stream  a 
thousand  feet  below.  This  is  called  “The  Soldier’s 
Leap,”  because  of  the  impossible  tradition  that  a  soldier 
of  the  Republic,  when  hard  pressed,  once  took  this  broad 
jump.  As  he  probably  was  not  endowed  with  wings,  the 
story  is  hard  to  believe,  but  the  name  is  a  good  one,  and 
the  tradition  adds  spice  to  the  journey. 

We  are  sorry  when  Juncal  is  reached,  and  we  should  be 
sorrier  still  if  we  knew  what  was  ahead  of  us.  Before 
the  train  fairly  comes  to  a  stop,  there  is  a  grand  rush, 
helter-skelter,  “catch  as  catch  can,”  for  the  coaches 
which  are  drawn  up  in  line,  waiting  for  the  eighty  pas¬ 
sengers  who  are  to  cross  the  mountains.  The  theory  is 
that  the  first  coach  that  gets  its  load  will  be  the  first  to 
start,  and  so  will  avoid  some  of  the  dust  of  the  other 
twenty  that  will  race  on  behind. 

This  theory,  like  some  others,  does  not  always  work  in 
practice,  and  the  first  are  often  last,  and  the  last  first,  in 
getting  started,  according  to  the  will  and  word  of  the 
conductor,  who  accompanies  the  whole  party.  The 
theory  however  has  the  advantage  of  making  everybody 
hurry,  and,  in  a  surprisingly  short  space  of  time,  crack 
goes  the  whip  of  the  driver,  and  the  four  horses,  driven 
abreast,  start  off  at  a  breakneck  pace  over  one  of  the 
roughest  of  roads,  swinging  down  a  steep  incline  at  the 
rate  of  twelve  miles  an  hour,  and  then  up  an  equally 
steep  pitch  at  full  gallop,  until  our  breathless  horses, 
thoroughly  winded,  stop  to  rest  as  do  all  the  train  of  four 
times  twenty  panting  horses,  making  a  long  line  halting 
on  the  mountainside. 

Before  we  go  any  farther,  I  ought  to  describe  one  of 
these  mountain  coaches.  Let  not  my  readers  conjure  up 


FAMOUS  JOURNEY  ACROSS  THE  ANDES  185 


pictures  of  swinging  Concord  coaches,  balanced  on  great 
leather  springs,  or  even  of  Swiss  diligences  with  their 
comfortable  and  comparatively  roomy  seats.  The  Andean 
“  coach”  is  peculiar  to  the  country,  and,  let  us  hope  it 
will  never  be  copied,  but  will  quietly  disappear  when  the 
railway  tunnels  the  mountains  and  renders  it  obsolete. 
It  is  a  very  small  cramped  affair,  holding  four  people 
when  crowded.  The  seats  run  sideways,  and  the  top  and 
sides  are  covered  with  white  canvas  like  a  butcher’s 
wagon.  The  canvas  is  buttoned  down  tight  except  at  the 
back,  to  keep  out  the  intolerable  dust.  The  springs  are 
very  inadequate,  if  indeed  there  are  any  at  all,  and  one 
feels  to  the  centre  of  his  being  every  bump  and  stone  and 
water-bar  in  the  long  six  hours’  journey. 

There  are  two  rival  companies  that  convey  passengers, 
but  the  coaches  are  equally  bad  ;  in  fact  they  seem  to  be 
just  alike  except  that  those  of  one  line  are  painted  black, 
and  the  other  yellow.  These  companies  are  deadly  rivals, 
however,  and  their  drivers  frequently  indulge  in  races 
in  the  most  inopportune  places,  as  we  found  to  our 
cost ;  for  our  driver  being  outdistanced  by  his  rival,  at¬ 
tempted  to  take  a  short  cut  over  a  little  rise  of  ground, 
which  was  never  meant  for  a  coach.  The  coach  tipped, 
the  horses  floundered  among  the  rocks,  and  we  saved 
ourselves  from  a  serious  smash -up  by  all  jumping  out  and 
righting  the  coach,  and  walking  up  the  hill  until  it  got 
into  the  road  once  more.  Another  coach  in  our  pro¬ 
cession  tipped  entirely  over,  but  no  one  was  hurt,  and 
fatal  accidents,  I  am  told,  are  remarkably  rare,  consider¬ 
ing  the  fact  that  three  times  a  week  nearly  a  hundred 
people  take  this  journey. 

By  interminable  zigzags  the  coach  road  mounts  the 
mountain.  Starting  at  about  5,000  feet  above  the  sea, 
it  climbs  more  than  7,000  feet  in  some  fifteen  miles  to 
the  summit  of  the  pass,  12,796  feet  above  the  sea.  The 


186  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


top  of  Mt.  Blanc  is  but  a  little  higher  than  this  pass,  and 
Mt.  Washington  and  Mt.  Jefferson  would  dwindle  into 
foothills  as  seen  from  this  gigantic  Andean  range. 

Many  of  the  views  are  sublime  and  such  as  can  be  seen 
nowhere  else  in  the  world.  Rough,  rugged,  barren  in  the 
extreme  in  the  higher  ranges,  Nature  has  done  her  best 
here  to  pile  Ossa  on  Pelion,  and  to  enable  man  to  mount 
on  them  to  the  stars.  In  early  April  we  found  the  pass 
warm  at  midday,  and  almost  entirely  free  from  snow, 
though  sometimes  it  is  absolutely  closed  to  travel  after 
the  middle  of  April,  and  even  in  February  tunnels  occa¬ 
sionally  have  to  be  dug  through  snow  banks,  and  mules 
have  to  be  substituted  for  the  coaches.  The  pass  is  usually 
open,  however,  for  travellers  from  November  until  the 
end  of  April,  and  sometimes  into  May,  but  is  closed  during 
the  winter  months  of  June,  July,  August  and  Sep¬ 
tember. 

As  we  approach  the  top  on  the  Chilean  side,  the  zig¬ 
zags  grow  more  numerous  and  arduous,  until,  in  looking 
back,  one  can  count  as  many  as  twenty  curves  over  which 
he  has  come.  The  scenery,  at  the  same  time,  becomes 
bolder,  grander,  more  sublime.  Mountain  peaks,  twice 
ten  thousand  feet  high,  tower  about  us,  and  we  are  over¬ 
whelmed  by  their  overpowering  vastness  and  sterility. 
Nowhere,  except  in  Montenegro  and  the  Canadian  Rock¬ 
ies,  have  I  seen  such  massive  natural  monuments,  and 
the  latter  are  relieved  by  vegetation  up  to  the  tree  line. 
There  seems  to  be  no  tree  line  in  the  Andes. 

On  the  top  of  the  pass  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
statues  in  the  world  ;  an  heroic  figure  of  the  Christ, 
upholding  a  cross.  On  the  base  of  the  pedestal  are  the 
emblematic  figures  of  Chile  and  Argentina  clasping  hands 
as  a  symbol  of  their  settlement  of  the  boundary  dispute, 
which  at  one  time  seriously  threatened  war;  a  war 
happily  averted  by  arbitration,  which  assigned  the 


THE  CHRIST  OF  THE  ANDES. 


FAMOUS  JOURNEY  ACROSS  THE  ANDES  187 


summit  of  the  Andes  as  the  boundary  between  the 
nations. 

Under  the  pedestal  is  the  inscription 

1 1  He  is  Our  Peace 
Who  Hath  Made  Both  One.” 

The  magnificence  of  the  surrounding  scenery,  the  isolated 
loftiness  of  the  natural  pedestal  and  the  character,  the 
appropriateness,  and  the  beauty  of  the  statue  itself  all 
combine  to  make  “The  Christ  of  the  Andes”  perhaps 
the  most  impressive  monument  in  the  world. 

Immediately  after  passing  the  monument  we  are  on 
Argentine  soil,  and  then  commences  a  descent  of  some 
2, 000  feet  to  the  town  of  Las  Cuevas.  In  some  respects 
this  is  the  most  hair-raising  part  of  the  journey.  The 
descent  is  very  rapid,  the  zigzags  very  numerous,  the 
curves  very  sharp.  The  driver  whips  up  his  horses,  who 
also  scent  the  oats  in  the  distant  town  which  we  can  see 
almost  from  the  top.  At  breakneck  speed  we  dash  along. 
There  is  no  wall  and  no  stone  posts,  as  on  the  Swiss 
roads,  to  guard  the  side,  and  every  side  is  either  a 
precipitous  mountain  or  a  fathomless  precipice.  Around 
every  curve  the  coach  slews  with  only  two  or  three  wheels 
on  the  ground,  and  the  precipice  only  four  inches  from 
the  outside  wheel,  but  a  special  Providence  protects  the 
travellers,  and  we  reach  Las  Cuevas  safe  and  sound,  to  be 
sure,  but  covered  with  such  a  coating  of  fine  yellow  dust 
that  our  own  mothers  would  hardly  know  us. 

The  rest  of  the  journey  to  Buenos  Ayres  is  comparatively 
easy.  A  narrow  gauge  rack  and  pinion  road  takes  us  to 
Mendoza,  some  four  hours  away.  Grand  Andean  scenery 
charms  us  on  every  side,  with  Mount  Aconcagua  (23,393 
feet),  the  highest  mountain  in  the  western  hemisphere, 
occasionally  visible,  while  other  mountains  scarcely  less 
mighty,  loom  on  every  side. 


188  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


At  Mendoza,  which  is  among  the  foot-hills  of  the  Ar¬ 
gentine  Andes,  we  change  again  to  a  broad  gauge  road, 
where  comfortable  sleeping  cars  wait  to  carry  us  to 
Buenos  Ayres,  650  miles  away,  a  journey  that  takes  some 
twenty-three  hours. 

Except  for  one  range  of  hills,  the  whole  distance  is  over 
an  absolutely  flat  plain,  but  a  plain  of  marvellous  fertility, 
covered  with  innumerable  flocks  and  herds,  and  pro¬ 
ducing  bumper  crops  of  corn  and  wheat.  A  vast  world’s 
granary  six  hundred  miles  wide  and  hundreds  of  miles 
from  north  to  south,  are  the  prairies  of  Argentina. 

But  this  article  has  to  do  with  the  mountain  journey, 
and,  before  it  is  ended,  I  may  well  answer  the  question 
which  has  already  been  often  put  to  me,  whether  it  is 
practicable  and  worth  while  for  the  average  traveller  to 
take  it.  It  certainly  is,  if  the  said  average  traveller  is 
willing  to  put  up  with  a  few  discomforts.  It  depends 
largely  upon  one’s  previous  point  of  view. 

Was  it  Mark  Twain  who  said  to  the  unskillful  barber  who 
asked  him  if  the  razor  was  easy  :  “It  depends  upon  what 
you  call  it ;  if  you  call  it  shaving  it  is  pretty  hard, — if 
you  call  it  skinning  it  isn’t  so  bad.”  So  if  you  are  think¬ 
ing  of  a  pleasure  journey,  a  charming  ride  over  the  Andes 
such  as  you  would  have  in  Switzerland  or  the  Pyrenees, 
it  is  pretty  hard ;  if  you  call  it  getting  across  the  Andes 
over  a  new,  rough,  undeveloped  desert  country,  it  isn’t 
so  bad.  If  you  can  stand  dirt,  heat  and  cold  ;  if  you  do 
not  wince  too  much  at  the  abuse  of  horses  and  mules ; 
if  you  can  endure  considerable  extortion  without  grum¬ 
bling  ;  if  you  can  see  your  trunks  and  other  baggage 
pitched  about  and  thrown  over  by  the  worst  baggage 
smashers  in  the  world  ;  if  you  do  not  wholly  lose  your 
equanimity  when  your  trunks  are  opened  on  the  road 
and  the  contents  stolen,  as  mine  were  ;  if  you  can  “  eat 
your  peck  of  dirt”  in  a  few  hours  instead  of  a  lifetime, 


FAMOUS  JOURNEY  ACROSS  THE  ANDES  189 


and  enjoy  the  dirt  j  if  your  nerves  are  strong  enough  to 
stand  a  ten  mile  gallop  on  the  edge  of  a  precipice  ;  if  you 
want  to  see  the  most  magnificent  scenery  in  the  world  ; 
if  you  enjoy  a  spice  of  adventure ;  if  you  would  have 
memories  and  mental  pictures  that  will  remain  fresh  and 
vivid  for  a  lifetime ;  if  you  would  see  the  most  magnifi¬ 
cent  works  of  God  and  some  of  the  most  daring  engineer¬ 
ing  feats  of  man  ;  you  will  take  this  journey  when  you 
have  the  opportunity,  and  be  thankful  all  your  life  that 
you  have  done  so. 

At  any  rate,  this  route  is  far  shorter  than  the  alternative 
route  through  the  straits  of  Magellan,  taking  only  two 
days  instead  of  ten,  and  it  costs  only  half  as  much. 

In  five  years  (or  more  likely  ten)  the  tunnel  through 
the  Andes  will  be  completed,  and  the  whole  journey  will 
be  made  by  rail.  Then  the  route  will  be  robbed  of  all  its 
terrors — and  more  than  half  of  its  joys. 


xxm 


ARGENTINA,  THE  LAND  OF  THE  LIMITLESS 
PAMPAS 

One  Hundred  and  Seventy  Miles  of  Rail  Without  a  Curve— A  Vast  Plain 
— The  Mesopotamia — Buenos  Ayres,  the  Beautiful — The  Early 
Years  of  Argentina — Strangling  the  Trade  of  the  River  Plate — 
Buenos  Ayres  a  Democratic  City— The  Brief  British  Occupation— The 
25th  of  May,  1810— Separating  from  Spain— Revolutions  and  Counter- 
Revolutions — The  U.  S.  Grant  of  Argentina,  San  Martin’s  Great 
Campaign— More  Recent  History — Future  Prospects. 

IN  crossing  Argentina  from  the  Chilean  boundary  to 
the  sea,  one  receives  an  impression  of  boundlessness, 
of  limitless  extent,  that  he  gets  in  no  other  land. 
Other  countries  have  their  hills  and  valleys  ;  Argentina 
is  one  vast  plain.  One  almost  feels  that  he  is  at  sea  as 
he  looks  out  of  the  car  window,  hour  after  hour,  and  sees 
the  same  flat  prairies,  as  smooth  and  level  as  the  ocean 
on  a  calm  day.  Even  so  much  variation  as  would  be 
caused  in  the  surface  by  an  ocean  swell  is  imperceptible 
on  the  pampas.  For  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles 
the  railway  track  runs  without  a  curve,  and,  for  more 
than  half  a  day,  one  can  watch  the  absolutely  straight 
converging  tracks,  until  they  are  lost  to  view  by  the 
curvature  of  the  earth. 

To  be  sure  there  are  forests  in  the  north  and  mountains 

\ 

on  the  Chilean  border,  but  the  part  of  Argentina  that 
counts  politically  and  industrially,  and  from  an  agricul¬ 
tural  and  business  standpoint,  is  these  limitless  fields  of 
grain  in  the  east  and  pasture  land  in  the  west ;  prairies 
that  have  already  made  the  people,  in  proportion  to  their 
population,  the  richest  in  the  world,  and  that  seem 

190 


AN  ARGENTINE  FARMHOUSE. 


ARGENTINE  INDIANS, 


ARGENTINA 


191 


destined  in  the  future  to  fill  the  granaries  of  all  the 
western  nations. 

South  of  Bolivia  and  Paraguay  and  east  of  Chile, 
Argentina  occupies  all  the  lower  end  of  the  South 
American  continent,  save  little  Uruguay,  an  extent  of 
territory  nearly  half  as  large  as  continental  United 
States,  and  within  its  borders,  is  probably  less  waste 
land  than  in  any  other  large  nation. 

There  is  a  small  section  of  Argentina  between  the 
Uruguay  and  the  Parana  Rivers  on  the  western  side  of 
the  republic,  a  country  covered  with  rich  grasses,  well 
watered  by  numerous  rivers,  called  the  Mesopotamia. 
This  smallest  natural  geographical  division  of  the  country 
contains  81,000  square  miles,  and  is  larger  than  England 
and  “  more  uniformly  fertile.” 

Besides  this  there  are  350, 000  square  miles  of  pampas 
suitable  for  grain  growing,  and  twice  as  many  square 
miles  in  the  Andean  provinces  and  in  Patagonia  where 
the  flocks  and  herds  of  the  world  may  find  pasture. 

But  Argentina  is  not  solely  a  country  of  wheat  farms 
and  cattle  ranges.  More  than  a  quarter  part  of  its  peo¬ 
ple  live  in  cities,  and  one  of  these,  Buenos  Ayres,  the 
capital  of  the  republic,  ranks  among  the  first  class  cities 
of  the  world,  being  surpassed  in  size  only  by  London, 
New  York,  Chicago,  Paris,  Berlin,  St.  Petersburg,  and 
Philadelphia.  It  is  the  first  city  in  South  America,  the 
fourth  city  in  all  America,  and  the  second  largest  Latin 
city  in  the  world.  It  is  not  only  great  in  numbers,  but 
beautiful  in  its  architecture,  and  one  of  the  world’s  great 
centres  of  commerce  and  business  life. 

The  development  of  such  a  country,  with  such  a 
capital  city,  from  its  position  in  the  seventeenth  century 
as  the  Cinderella  of  the  South  American  provinces, 
is  well  worth  tracing.  The  early  years  of  Argentina 
were  marked  by  the  neglect,  almost  by  the  contempt, 


192  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


of  the  mother  country,  Spain.  She  had  no  gold  and 
Bilver,  and  therefore  was  not  worth  considering.  Her 
magnificent  agricultural  possibilities  and  her  splendid 
navigable  rivers  did  not  recommend  her  to  the  Spanish 
grandees,  whose  only  idea  of  America  was  that  of  a  great 
strong  box  filled  with  gold  and  silver  that  belonged  to  the 
Spanish  crown,  and  this  strong  box  must  be  broken  into 
and  its  contents  looted  at  the  first  possible  moment. 

In  the  level  alluvial  plains  east  of  the  Andes  there  was 
evidently  no  coin  and  so  they  were  not  worth  having. 
But  they  did  give  Spain  a  lot  of  trouble  nevertheless, 
for  through  them  ran  a  great  river,  and  near  its  mouth  in 
spite  of  all  the  authorities  at  home  could  do,  a  city 
called  Buenos  Ayres  persisted  in  growing  up. 

How  this  city  was  a  natural  outlet  for  the  gold  and 
silver  of  Peru,  as  well  as  for  the  hides  and  grains  of  her 
own  plains,  but  the  merchants  of  Cadiz,  to  whom  the 
monopoly  of  trade  was  granted,  were  so  afraid  that  other 
nations  would  share  their  trade  if  Buenos  Ayres  were  not 
strangled  at  the  birth,  that  they  made  it  a  crime  for  any 
one  to  trade  with  that  city,  and  decreed  that  all  European 
exports  and  imports  should  be  unloaded  on  the  north 
shore  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  at  Nombre  de  Dios, 
toilsomely  carried  across  the  Isthmus,  reloaded,  and 
shipped  in  coasters  to  Callao,  again  disembarked,  and 
carried  by  mules  over  the  almost  inaccessible  Andean 
passes,  over  the  great  Bolivian  plain  and  down  the  Andes 
to  Argentina.  Goods  sent  by  such  a  route  could  be  sold 
only  at  prohibitive  prices,  and  the  bulky  exports  of 
Argentina  could  not  be  sent  abroad  at  all,  by  reason  of 
the  cost  of  transportation  up  and  down  the  mountains 
and  across  the  Isthmus.  It  was  in  fact  a  deliberate  and 
century-long  attempt  to  strangle  the  trade  of  the  River 
Plate,  and  to  kill  the  city  which,  in  spite  of  Cadiz,  in¬ 
sisted  upon  growing  up  on  its  banks. 


ARGENTINA 


193 


The  Spanish  crown  to  which  America  belonged  (for 
America  was  never  in  the  true  sense  a  colony  of  Spain 
but  a  mere  appendage  of  the  crown)  supported  the 
monopoly  because  a  fifth  part  of  all  America’s  gold  and 
silver  accrued  to  the  crown,  and  if  free  trade  were  allowed 
or  anything  approaching  it,  some  of  this  gold  and  silver 
it  was  feared  might  be  smuggled  in  the  bales  of  hides  and 
wool. 

Such  a  deliberate  destruction  of  trade,  and  forcing  of 
it  into  unnatural  and  impossible  channels,  seems  incon¬ 
ceivable  in  these  days,  yet  for  nearly  a  century  it  went 
on,  and  strange  to  say  it  was  not  resented  or  resisted  by 
the  colonists  who  never  denied  the  right  of  the  mother 
country  to  destroy  their  trade,  but  only  sought  to  evade 
it  by  becoming  the  most  expert  smugglers  in  the  world. 
So  Buenos  Ayres  became  a  huge  cave  of  Adullam,  a 
smuggler’s  paradise.  She  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  en¬ 
tering  the  only  door  of  expansion  or  even  of  existence, 
open  to  her. 

At  last,  after  years  and  years  of  these  repressive  laws, 
their  uselessness,  if  not  their  iniquity,  became  apparent, 
and  Buenos  Ayres  and  the  country  of  which  it  was  the 
port,  were  allowed  to  develop  in  their  own  way,  though 
without  any  fostering  care  on  the  part  of  the  home  gov¬ 
ernment,  all  of  whose  interests  were  still  concentrated  on 
the  mines  of  Peru,  while  Lima  was  still  the  capital  of 
all  South  America. 

The  seventeenth  century  records  but  little  of  interest 
in  the  country  now  called  Argentina.  It  was  a  century  of 
slow  growth,  of  repression  by  the  home  government,  of 
irregular  development  by  smugglers  and  law-breakers $ 
but  in  spite  of  all,  of  some  progress. 

The  eighteenth  century  showed  but  little  improvement 
over  the  seventeenth,  until  it  was  well  on  towards  its  last 
quarter.  Then  the  Spanish  government,  seeing  the 


194  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


futility  of  its  efforts  to  strangle  the  trade  of  a  great 
natural  seaport,  and,  alarmed  at  the  aggressions  of  the 
Portuguese,  who  were  pushing  ^southward  from  Brazil, 
reversed  their  old  policy  and  created  a  new  Viceroyalty 
of  Buenos  Ayres. 

This  was  in  1776,  and  the  new  Viceroyalty  included  all 
the  enormous  territory  east  of  the  Andes  and  south  of 
Brazil,  embracing  the  present  republics  of  Bolivia,  Para¬ 
guay,  Uruguay  and  Argentina.  Buenos  Ayres,  the  cap¬ 
ital  of  this  vast  province,  contained  then  only  20,000  in¬ 
habitants,  but  it  already  gave  promise  of  its  future 
greatness. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Buenos  Ayres  was  always 
a  democratic  city  and  from  this  centre  spread  the  demo¬ 
cratic  spirit  over  all  southern  South  America.  Dawson 
puts  the  facts  of  the  case  well  when  he  says :  “  Lima 

and  Mexico  were  centres  of  aristocracy  and  bureaucracy, 
while  the  social  organization  of  Buenos  Ayres  and  its  sur¬ 
rounding  territory  was  always  democratic.  All  were 
equal  in  fact ;  neither  nobles  nor  serfs  existed ;  the  Vice¬ 
roy  was  little  more  than  a  new  official  imposed  by  exter¬ 
nal  authority,  and  having  no  real  support  in  the  country 
itself.  It  is  not  a  mere  coincidence  that  the  three 
centres — Caracas,  Buenos  Ayres  and  Pernambuco — 
whence  the  revolutionary  spirit  spread  over  South 
America,  should  all  have  been  democratic  in  social  or¬ 
ganization  and  far  distant  from  the  old  Colonial  capitals. 

“In  Buenos  Ayres  the  Viceroy  himself  could  not  find 
a  white  coachman.  An  Argentine  Creole  would  no  more 
serve  in  a  menial  capacity  than  a  North  American 
pioneer ;  and  a  Creole  hated  a  Spaniard  very  much  as 
his  contemporary,  the  Scotch -Irish  settler  of  the  Appa¬ 
lachian,  hated  an  Englishman.7 7 

It  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen¬ 
tury  that  this  democratic  yeast  began  to  work,  and  to 


ARGENTINA 


195 


produce  visible  and  startling  effects  throughout  all  South 
America.  Argentina  first  of  all  grew  restive  under  the 
Spanish  yoke,  and  alone  has  the  distinction  of  being  the 
only  country  that  never  again  admitted  the  Spaniard, 
after  once  having  expelled  him. 

But  before  this  deliverance  came,  an  episode  occurred 
in  Argentine  history  which  came  near  altering  her  fate 
and  that  of  all  South  America  in  a  startling  way.  This 
was  none  other  than  the  brief  occupation  of  Buenos 
Ayres  by  the  British  in  1806.  This  occupation,  to  be 
sure,  lasted  only  from  June  27th  to  August  12th  of  the 
same  year  when  the  British  troops  under  General  Beres- 
ford  were  beaten  and  forced  to  surrender  to  an  overwhelm¬ 
ing  force.  In  the  following  year  the  British  again  at¬ 
tempted  to  capture  the  city,  but  the  women  and  children, 
as  well  as  the  men,  took  part  in  their  discomfiture ;  pelted 
them  with  stones  and  firebrands  from  the  flat  roofs  of  the 
city,  while  their  husbands  and  fathers  shot  them  down 
from  every  open  doorway. 

After  two  days  of  fighting  in  the  streets  of  the  city, 
the  British  general  asked  for  terms,  and  was  obliged  to 
evacuate  not  only  Buenos  Ayres,  but  to  withdraw  his 
troops  from  Montevideo  as  well.  But  though  the  British 
were  defeated  in  battle,  they  soon  won  commercial  su¬ 
premacy,  for  English  merchant  ships  followed  the  war¬ 
ships,  and  free  exchange  of  goods  with  all  the  world  was 
at  last  established. 

Soon  after  this  fiasco  of  British  arms  in  Buenos  Ayres, 
perhaps  inspired  to  further  deeds  of  prowess  by  their 
victory  over  the  English,  the  Argentines  resolved  to 
throw  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  and  the  25th  of  May,  1810, 
is  celebrated  by  the  Argentines  as  their  independence 
day.  Statues  in  the  chief  cities  commemorate  the  event ; 
a  leading  street  of  Buenos  Ayres  is  named  u  The  25th  of 
May  ”  and  when  the  anniversary  arrives  the  air  is  rent 


196  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


with  the  exploding  fire  crackers  and  torpedo,  as  in  our 
country  on  the  4th  of  July. 

At  first,  however,  there  was  little  thought  of  separat¬ 
ing  from  Spain,  but  the  Junta  of  Buenos  Ayres  resented 
the  accession  of  Joseph  Buonaparte  to  the  throne  of 
Spain,  and  proclaimed  their  allegiance  to  the  claimant, 
Ferdinand  VII.  But  the  spirit  of  rebellion  was  in  the 
air,  the  power  of  Spain,  distracted  by  internal  troubles 
and  under  the  heel  of  Napoleon,  was  broken,  and  soon 
the  revolution  was  full  fledged  and  the  armies  of  Buenos 
Ayres  were  marching  into  the  other  provinces  of  Argen¬ 
tina  to  arouse  the  spirit  of  resistance  to  Spanish  rule. 

At  first  they  were  uniformly  successful  and  were 
checked  only  when  their  armies  reached  the  high  table¬ 
lands  of  Bolivia,  where  the  altitude  as  well  as  the 
Spanish  troops  from  Peru,  fought  against  them. 

The  next  fifty  years  of  the  history  of  Argentina  is  a 
welter  of  bloodshed  and  turmoil,  but,  through  it  all  if 
one  can  only  keep  the  clue  in  his  hands,  ran  a  great  idea 
and  a  great  purpose,  often  hidden  perhaps  from  the  actors 
themselves.  This  purpose  was  to  establish  the  balance 
of  power  between  the  different  powerful  states  of  which 
Argentina  was  composed,  and  the  federal  government  at 
Buenos  Ayres.  It  was  the  same  conflict  which  has  divided 
the  parties  of  the  United  States  of  North  America,  and 
which  in  large  measure  brought  on  the  bloody  civil  war 
of  >61. 

The  states’  rights  party  was  strong,  but  the  exigencies 
of  the  situation  and  the  threats  of  foreign  foes,  worked  in 
favour  of  the  federal  party.  At  last  in  1853  a  constitu¬ 
tion  based  on  that  of  the  United  States  was  adopted,  and 
this,  with  a  few  unimportant  amendments  remains  the 
law  of  the  land,  and  seems  to  be  thoroughly  established 
for  all  the  future. 

We  cannot  follow  the  revolutions  and  counter  revolu- 


ARGENTINA 


197 


tions,  the  battles  and  the  bloodshed  that  stain  the  pages 
of  Argentine  history  for  more  than  half  a  century.  But 
we  should  not  fail  to  record  the  name  of  her  greatest 
hero,  General  San  Martin, — the  George  Washington  of 
South  America,  who,  in  the  darkest  and  most  critical  day 
of  the  revolutionary  movement,  took  command,  and  for 
seven  years  led  the  armies  of  the  creole  revolutionists  to 
victory. 

It  would  be  more  appropriate,  perhaps,  to  call  General 
San  Martin  the  Ulysses  S.  Grant  of  South  America,  for 
he  was  as  quiet,  unassuming  and  taciturn  as  the  hero  of 
Vicksburg  and  Appomattox.  He  was  never  known  to 
make  but  one  speech  in  his  life,  but  he  spoke  by  deeds 
not  words,  and  was  as  persistent  and  unyielding  as  u  Un¬ 
conditional  Surrender  Grant”  himself. 

In  1812  San  Martin  landed  in  Buenos  Ayres  fresh  from 
the  Spanish  campaign  against  Napoleon,  in  which  he 
had  distinguished  himself.  At  that  moment  the  fortunes 
of  the  revolutionists  throughout  all  of  South  America 
were  at  their  lowest  ebb.  The  Spanish  arms  were  suc¬ 
cessful  everywhere  except  in  Argentina  and  that  country 
was  distracted  by  civil  war.  In  Bolivia,  Peru  and  Chile 
the  Spaniards  had  largely  regained  their  lost  power,  and 
two  expeditions  of  the  Argentines  into  Bolivia  had  sig¬ 
nally  and  disastrously  failed. 

Then  San  Martin  began  operations  at  that  darkest  hour 
for  South  America  which  preceded  the  dawn.  Patiently, 
skillfully,  he  picked  and  drilled  an  army  of  4,000  men, 
choosing  only  genuine  soldiers  who  were  drilled  and 
hardened  until  they  became  well-nigh  invincible. 

In  the  meantime,  that  11  fighting  demon”  of  an  Irish 
admiral,  William  Brown,  with  the  few  poor  ships  of  Ar¬ 
gentina,  had  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet  at  Montevideo, 
leaving  San  Martin  free  to  push  his  victorious  armies  to 
the  Pacific  Coast.  Outgeneralling  and  outmaneuvring 


198  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


the  Spanish  troops  who  guarded  the  mountain  passes, 
San  Martin  led  his  troops  over  the  Andes  at  a  height  far 
above  Napoleon’s  famous  conquest  of  the  Alps,  surprised 
and  captured  the  city  of  Santiago,  forever  broke  the 
Spanish  power  in  Chile,  built  a  fleet  at  Valparaiso, 
wrested  Peru  from  the  Spaniards,  and  virtually  freed 
South  America  from  their  rule. 

Then,  after  seven  years  of  drilling  and  fighting,  finding 
that  he  could  not  countenance  the  ambitious  personal 
schemes  of  BolivaY,  as  has  before  been  explained,  he 
retired  into  voluntary  exile,  and  was  almost  forgotten 
even  by  his  own  countrymen,  who  have  only  lately 
awakened  to  his  greatness  as  a  general  and  a  patriot. 
Now  streets  and  towns  and  many  statues  in  public  squares 
do  honour  to  San  Martin,  the  greatest  Argentinian,  per¬ 
haps  the  greatest  South  American  of  recorded  history. 

The  period  from  1812  to  1862  is  the  half  century  of 
civil  war  in  Argentina,  when  bloody  revolution  succeeded 
bloody  revolution.  Since  then  political  disturbances 
have  been  comparatively  few  and  of  slight  moment.  The 
u  Unitarians”  who  in  some  respects  resemble  a  states’ 
rights  party  have  yielded  many  of  their  contentions,  and 
Buenos  Ayres  is  established  firmly  as  the  federal  capital, 
being  separated  from  the  state  of  Buenos  Ayres  and  set 
apart  as  a  federal  district,  like  the  District  of  Columbia. 

During  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  wealth  has  flowed 
into  Argentina,  and  immigration  has  recruited  the  cities 
and  ranches.  It  has  been  the  “  boom  ”  country  of  South 
America,  and  in  growth  of  wealth  and  population  rivals 
any  state  of  North  America,  keeping  pace  for  instance 
with  such  commonwealths  as  Illinois  or  Ohio,  each  of 
which  states  it  equals  in  population  and  far  surpasses  in 
territory. 

Of  the  resources  of  the  country  and  of  the  present  great¬ 
ness  of  Buenos  Ayres,  other  chapters  will  treat,  and  it 


ARGENTINA 


199 


only  remains  to  be  said  that  great  as  is  the  recent  growth 
of  the  republic,  and  marvellous  as  her  prosperity  has 
been,  there  seem  to  be  but  few  clouds  on  her  horizon  and 
her  future  promises  even  greater  material  glories  than  her 
past 


XXIV 

A  PROSPEROUS  REPUBLIC 

Argentina  and  Brazil — The  Inexhaustible  Wealth  of  Argentina— Her 
*  Vast  Wheat  Lands — The  Occasional  Estancia — The  Comparative 
Size  of  Argentina — The  Delta  of  Great  Rivers — The  Estuary  of  the 
La  Plata — Nature’s  Great  Excavator — The  City  of  Buenos  Ayres 
—Ten  Years  Ago  and  Now— The  Millionaires  of  Buenos  Ayres. 

THE  most  prosperous  country  in  South  America 
to-day  in  some  respects  is  the  Argentine  Be- 
public.  Brazil,  to  be  sure,  is  pressing  Argen¬ 
tina  hard,  and  on  account  of  her  far  larger  territory, 
population  and  greater  resources,  may  distance  her  in 
the  race,  but  the  other  countries  are  scarcely  in  the  run¬ 
ning.  Chile,  the  ancient  rival  of  Argentina,  until  re¬ 
cently  has  been  considered  her  equal  in  resources  and 
military  power,  but,  while  Argentina  is  forging  ahead, 
Chile,  of  late  years,  has  been  losing  ground,  and  the 
great  earthquake,  followed  by  her  recent  financial  diffi¬ 
culties,  and  the  depreciation  of  her  currency,  is  widen¬ 
ing  the  gap  between  the  resources  of  these  two  repub¬ 
lics  ;  though  half  a  dozen  years  of  peace  and  financial 
prosperity  for  Chile,  and  a  revolution  or  a  few  “  locust 
years”  for  Argentina  wheat-fields,  might  reverse  the 
balance. 

The  latter  contingencies  are  not  likely,  however,  for  the 
federal  government  of  Argentina  is  growing  more  and 
more  stable,  and  every  year  her  limitless  wheat-fields 
and  pasture  lands  are  being  extended  north  and  south 
and  west. 

Moreover,  Argentina  is  on  the  right  side  of  the  At* 

200 


A  PROSPEROUS  REPUBLIC 


201 


lantic.  She  is  opposite  Europe,  with  which  she  has  al¬ 
most  daily  communication  by  steamer.  She  can  reach 
the  capital  of  Brazil  in  four  days ;  New  York  in  three 
weeks,  while  the  shabby  steamers  that  crawl  up  the  west 
coast  of  South  America  take  twenty-six  days  to  reach 
Panama,  and  nearly  twice  as  long  to  reach  San  Fran¬ 
cisco. 

The  traveller  gets  a  tremendous  impression  of  the 
mighty  resources  of  Argentina  in  crossing  from  the 
Andes  to  the  coast.  The  journey  from  Mendoza  to 
Buenos  Ayres  is  about  seven  hundred  miles  in  length, 
and  takes  a  night  and  a  day  on  a  fast  train. 

Except  for  one  low  range  of  mountains  near  the 
western  side,  one  rides  over  an  absolutely  flat  plain. 
Not  a  hillock  as  big  as  a  good-sized  ant-hill  is  in  sight  j 
not  a  mile  of  rolling  prairie  ;  not  a  barn,  scarcely  a 
house  besides  an  occasional  mud  hut  with  a  straw  roof. 
A  very  few  villages  break  the  monotony  of  the  view  for 
hundreds  of  miles. 

Great  haystacks  for  miles  and  miles,  and  herds  of 
countless  cattle  are  the  only  outstanding  objects  on  the 
horizon.  And  yet  this  is  one  of  the  richest  countries  of 
the  world.  Here  lies  the  exhaustless  wealth  of  Argen¬ 
tina,  for  these  prairies  sustain  millions  of  cattle  and 
hundreds  of  millions  of  sheep,  and  out  of  this  mellow 
and  prolific  soil  will  grow  wheat  and  com  enough  to  feed 
half  the  world. 

What  one  can  see  from  the  transcontinental  railway  is 
only  a  little  ribbon  of  land,  a  few  miles  wide,  on  either 
side  of  the  track,  while  for  hundreds  of  miles,  north  and 
south  and  east  and  west,  extend  these  vast  fertile  plains 
without  a  mile  of  desert  to  mar  the  scene.  The  available 
wheat  land  of  Argentina  is  estimated  at  240,000,000  of 
acres,  though  not  ten  per  cent,  of  this  is  yet  under  cul¬ 
tivation. 


202  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


With  all  its  actual  wealth,  Argentina  is  still  largely  a 
country  of  possibilities.  As  compared  with  our  own 
prairie  states  of  Iowa,  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  its  develop¬ 
ment  has  but  just  begun.  There  you  see  not  only  vast 
fields  of  corn  and  wheat,  but  thousands  of  comfortable 
farmhouses,  tree  shaded  villas,  thriving  towns  with 
churches,  schools  and  court-houses. 

Here  you  strain  your  aching,  dust-filled  eyes  to  get  a 
glimpse  of  anything  besides  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of 
sheep.  Away  off  in  the  distance,  after  gazing  through 
the  window  of  the  flying  train  for  half  an  hour,  perhaps, 
you  see  a  single  house  that  is  worthy  of  the  name,  sur¬ 
rounded  by  trees  and  gardens.  In  the  same  distance  you 
would  see  a  hundred  such  homes  in  Iowa  and  Kansas. 
This  solitary  house  is  on  an  estancia  or  gigantic  farm, 
occupied  for  a  few  weeks  of  the  year  by  the  wealthy 
owner  who  lives  for  the  rest  of  the  twelve  months  in 
some  palace  of  Buenos  Ayres. 

Scattered  here  and  there  over  the  prairie  are  some 
wretched  mud  huts  where  the  actual  tillers  of  the  soil 
live.  These  are  usually  Italian  peasants,  who  earn  $30 
or  $35  a  month  in  addition  to  all  the  meat  (mutton)  they 
want  to  eat,  and  who  often,  between  harvests,  go  back  to 
sunny  Italy  to  spend  what  they  have  earned,  and  then  to 
return  again  before  the  next  harvest  time. 

Many  of  these  estancias  contain  10,000,  20,000,  even 
50,000  acres,  and  not  a  few  proprietors  have  estates  that 
run  up  into  the  hundreds  of  thousands.  Probably  there 
is  no  country  in  the  world  where  wealth  is  accumulated 
in  the  hands  of  a  few  as  in  Argentina.  Considering  the 
whole  wealth  of  the  country,  our  multi-millionaires  are 
poor  men  proportionally,  compared  with  the  magnates 
of  Argentina.  One  cannot  regard  this  as  a  healthy  state 
of  affairs,  but,  doubtless,  as  the  population  increases, 
wealth  and  land  will  be  more  evenly  distributed,  and  the 


A  PROSPEROUS  REPUBLIC 


203 


cultivators  of  the  soil  will  own  it  instead  of  slaving  for 
the  lords  of  the  land. 

In  comparing  the  size  of  Argentina  with  other  coun¬ 
tries,  Mr.  F.  G.  Carpenter  says  :  “If  we  could  lift  it 
up  at  the  corners,  turn  it  around  and  spread  it  upon 
the  United  States  from  east  to  west,  placing  the  edge  of 
Patagonia  at  Yew  York,  the  borders  of  Brazil  and 
Bolivia,  which  bound  Argentina  on  the  north,  would  be 
some  distance  beyond  Salt  Lake  City.  If  we  could  cut 
Argentina  up  into  patchwork  pieces  and  fit  them  upon 
our  territory,  every  inch  of  land  east  of  the  Mississippi 
would  be  covered,  and  the  remnants  would  be  larger 
than  the  area  of  several  states  west  of  that  river.  The 
Argentine  Republic  is  twelve  times  as  large  as  Great 
Britian.  It  is  five  times  the  size  of  France,  and  it  is 
greater  in  area  than  the  states  of  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
Texas,  Yew  Mexico,  Arizona,  California,  Utah,  Colorado 
and  Kansas  combined.” 

But  the  real  size  of  a  country  cannot  be  measured  by 
the  number  of  square  miles  over  which  its  flag  flies,  but 
rather  by  the  amount  of  its  productive  territory  and  the 
population  it  can  sustain.  Measured  by  this  test,  too, 
Argentina  is  a  great  country,  for  the  proportion  of  its 
unproductive  territory  is  very  small.  To  be  sure,  there 
are  vast,  bleak,  wind-swept  areas  in  southern  Patagonia, 
but  even  there  some  of  the  best  sheep  in  the  world  can  be 
raised.  In  the  west,  Argentina’ s  territory  sweeps  up  to  the 
crest  of  the  Andes,  but  the  slope  is  steep,  and  we  soon  get 
down  from  the  “  cumbra,”  the  summit,  to  the  fertile 
plains  of  Mendoza,  where  the  best  grapes  and  the  most 
delicious  fruits  grow.  Then,  as  we  have  seen,  from  there 
to  the  sea,  stretch  the  vast  reaches  of  productive  soil  that 
only  need  the  water  which  almost  everywhere  underlies  the 
plains,  and  a  little  tickling  with  the  hoe,  to  produce  the 
broad  smile  of  an  abundant  harvest. 


204  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


All  this  land  is  really  the  vast  delta  of  a  series  of  great 
rivers  which  have  brought  the  silt  down  from  the  Andes 
in  the  countless  ages  of  the  past,  and  have  been  pushing 
the  rich  soil  farther  and  farther  out  into  the  Atlantic 
ocean  and  forming  the  pastures  on  which  the  flocks  and 
herds  of  the  world  can  graze.  This  process  is  still  going 
on,  and  for  miles  and  miles  the  ocean  beyond  the  wide 
mouth  of  the  Biver  Plate  is  stained  a  deep  coffee  colour 
by  the  soil  brought  down  by  the  great  rivers,  the  Uru¬ 
guay,  the  Paraguay,  and  Parana.  These  rivers  unite 
one  hundred  and  eighty  miles  from  the  sea  to  form  the 
Eio  de  la  Plata,  or  the  Eiver  Plate,  as  it  is  uneuphoni- 
ously  called  in  English. 

What  the  Eiver  Plate  lacks  in  length  (though  the  trib¬ 
utaries  that  form  it  make  it  one  of  the  longest  in  the 
world)  it  makes  up  in  width,  for  it  is  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  wide  at  the  mouth.  We  boarded  the  steamer 
which  was  to  ferry  us  across  the  mouth  of  this  river,  at 
six  o’clock  in  the  evening,  and  it  was  early  the  next 
morning  before  we  reached  Montevideo,  on  the  other 
side.  So  wide  indeed  is  this  vast  estuary  that  one  might 
to  all  appearances  be  on  the  broad  ocean,  for  from  the 
middle  no  land  is  visible  on  either  side,  and  frequently 
rough  weather  with  its  accompanying  seasickness  leads 
one  to  think  that  he  is  a  thousand  miles  at  sea,  instead  of 
in  a  fresh  water  river. 

To  quote  from  Carpenter  again  :  u  The  La  Plata  is  so 
full  of  silt  that  it  drops  10,000  tons  of  mud  every  hour. 
This  is  a  mass  so  great  that  were  it  loaded  upon  two-horse 
wagons  it  would  take  a  line  of  teams  sixty  miles  long  to 
carry  it ;  it  would  require  a  solid  line  of  such  teams  reaching 
from  New  Y  ork  to  Omaha  to  carry  the  dropping  of  one  day.  ’  ’ 

Such  is  one  of  nature’s  greatest  excavators  and  builders. 
If  our  government  could  turn  such  an  excavator  upon  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama  how  quickly  the  canal  would  be  dug, 


A  PROSPEROUS  REPUBLIC 


205 


provided  only  it  had  to  deal  with  the  soft  and  friable 
material  of  which  the  seacoast  of  Argentina  is  built ! 

But  such  an  excavator  has  its  disadvantages,  for  it 
dumps  its  material  in  very  inconvenient  places,  at  the 
entrance  to  the  harbour  of  Montevideo,  for  instance,  and 
in  the  channel  of  the  river,  so  that  constant  dredging  is 
required,  and  a  jetty  system  like  that  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi  is  contemplated. 

To  speak  of  Argentina  without  mentioning  Buenos 
Ayres  is  to  describe  France  without  alluding  to  Paris. 
In  fact,  Buenos  Ayres  is  far  more  to  Argentina  than  Paris 
is  to  France,  or  Berlin  to  Prussia,  or  New  York  City  to 
New  York  State.  It  not  only  contains  more  than  a  fifth 
of  the  population,  but  far  more  than  a  fifth  of  the  wealth 
and  culture.  Indeed,  representatives  of  nearly  all  the 
leading  families  of  the  country  settle  here  to  spend  their 
money,  wherever  they  may  make  it. 

Except  the  Australian  states  of  New  South  Wales  and 
Victoria,  no  countries  contain  so  large  a  proportion  of 
urban  population  as  Argentina.  Buenos  Ayres  is  indeed 
a  surprising  city,  when  one  thinks  of  the  time  it  has  had 
to  grow.  Though  founded  centuries  ago,  the  modern 
Buenos  Ayres  is  younger  than  Chicago.  It  is  the  boom 
town  of  the  southern  continent,  quite  as  emphatically  as 
the  metropolis  on  Lake  Michigan  stands  for  the  record 
growth  of  a  North  American  city. 

One  expects  much  before  he  reaches  Buenos  Ayres,  for 
he  has  read  of  its  marvels,  and  travellers’  twice-told  tales 
have  prepared  him  for  a  great,  prosperous,  busy  city. 
But  when  he  gets  there,  he  is  inclined  to  exclaim  with  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,  “the  half  has  not  been  told.” 

Yet  very  largely  this  modern  Buenos  Ayres  has  been 
built  up  within  the  last  fifteen  years.  Ten  years  ago 
horse  cars  plodded  through  the  streets  and  the  drivers 
blew  their  cow  horns  at  every  cross  street  to  warn  passers- 


206  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


by  that  they  were  coming.  Now  swift  electric  cars  clang 
their  bells  as  they  go  rushing  through  the  narrow  streets 
at  a  rate  which  one  would  think  would  make  them  twice 
as  fatal  as  the  Juggernauts  of  Serampore.  Fifteen  years 
ago  most  of  the  streets  were  paved  with  cobble  stones,  and 
horribly  paved  at  that.  Now  all  the  principal  streets 
are  paved  with  asphalt  and  the  automobiles  and  rubber - 
tired  carriages,  drawn  by  splendid  horses,  roll  as  smoothly 
over  them  as  over  the  boulevards  of  Paris. 

Huge  buildings  are  going  up  everywhere ;  great  busi¬ 
ness  blocks  of  six  or  eight  stories,  and  covering  an  im¬ 
mense  ground  space  (for  sky-scrapers  are  not  yet  allowed). 
It  is  said  that  30,000  houses  will  be  built  this  year  (1907), 
yet  it  is  almost  impossible  to  secure  a  house,  and  then 
only  at  a  tremendous  rental. 

Beauty  has  not  been  ignored  in  the  architecture  of  the 
city,  though  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  old  Spanish 
style  which  still  prevails,  of  a  low  building  of  one  or  two 
stories,  built  around  an  inner  court-yard,  or  patio,  does 
not  lend  itself  to  imposing  structures,  however  pleasant 
the  interior  of  the  house  with  its  flower-decked  patio, 
may  be.  In  many  cases,  however,  in  the  leading  streets, 
the  architects  have  broken  away  from  the  old  traditions, 
and  most  of  the  modern  buildings  would  do  credit  to  any 
city  of  the  world. 

The  Plaza  de  Mayo,  for  instance,  would  be  hard  to 
match  for  the  beauty  of  its  surrounding  buildings  in  any 
city  of  the  North  American  continent,  and  the  avenue  of 
the  same  name,  which  leads  out  of  it,  is  finer  than  the 
famous  Unter  den  Linden  of  Berlin. 

More  millionaires  live  in  Buenos  Ayres  than  in  any 
other  city  of  the  world  of  its  size,  if  that  is  an  enviable 
distinction,  and  from  the  prices  charged  for  everything, 
from  a  house  lot  to  a  shoestring,  one  would  seem  to  need 
to  be  a  millionaire  to  live  there  for  any  length  of  time. 


A  PROSPEROUS  REPUBLIC 


207 


The  leading  English  daily  of  Buenos  Ayres,  for  this 
cosmopolitan  city  supports  daily  newspapers  in  all  the 
great  modern  languages,  thus  summarized  the  condition 
of  the  Republic  at  the  beginning  of  1907  : 

“  The  new  year  begins  under  the  happiest  auspices  for 
the  Argentine  Republic.  It  is  at  peace  with  all  nations 
and  complete  order  prevails  throughout  the  whole  extent 
of  its  vast  territory.  The  harvest  bids  fair  to  be  the 
most  abundant  ever  known  ;  the  seasons  were  propitious 
for  the  pasture  lands  for  cattle  and  sheep,  and  the  high 
prices  which  are  being  realized  for  wool  makes  the  hearts 
of  ‘  estancieros  ’  rejoice.  A  spontaneous  current  of  im¬ 
migration  supplies  the  labour  needed  by  the  development 
of  agriculture  (the  result  of  the  rapidly  increasing  di¬ 
vision  of  large  landed  estates),  for  the  construction  of  rail¬ 
ways,  tramways,  ports,  and  other  public  works,  which 
are  in  course  of  construction,  and  for  the  exploitation  of 
forests  and  rivers.  .  .  .  The  idea  of  making  great 

additions  to  the  navy  appears  to  have  been  abandoned 
for  the  present  and  it  may  be  hoped  that  an  understand¬ 
ing  with  Brazil  will  render  unnecessary  a  rivalry  with 
that  power  in  the  acquisition  of  armaments.  .  .  . 

The  balance  of  trade  has  again  turned  in  favour  of  this 
country,  and  consequently  the  stock  of  gold  in  the  Con¬ 
version  Office  is  constantly  increasing.” 

This  brief  review  of  a  recent  year’s  history  fairly  sum¬ 
marizes  the  present  political,  industrial  and  commercial 
condition  of  this  Republic  of  the  far  South. 

To  be  sure,  a  little  revolution  in  the  province  of  San 
Juan  has  since  broken  out,  but  it  is  a  local  affair,  and  in 
no  way  affects  the  stability  of  the  federal  government 
of  Buenos  Ayres.  For  years  to  come,  so  far  as  human 
foresight  can  forecast  the  future,  the  prosperity  of  Ar¬ 
gentina  seems  assured. 


XXV 


PECULIARITIES  OF  BUENOS  AYRES 


The  Largest  City  in  South  America— The  Many  Nationalities— Few 
Americans — An  Air  of  Prosperity— High  Prices,  Enormous  Rents— 
The  Conventilla — Beautiful  Patios — “  La  Prensa  ” — Around  the  Plaza 
de  Mayo— President  Aleorta. 


T  the  first  glance  you  would  think  that  Buenos 


Ayres  had  no  peculiarities.  It  looks  very  much 


JL  like  any  other  fine  and  large  city  with  its  busy 
streets,  its  clanging  street-cars,  its  tree-shaded  avenues, 
its  bustling  stores  and  beautiful  churches  and  public  build¬ 
ings.  But,  if  these  were  all  there  was  to  write  about,  it 
would  scarcely  be  worth  a  chapter. 

If  Paris  were  just  like  London,  and  London  like  New 
York,  and  New  York  like  Buenos  Ayres,  one  description 
would  fit  them  all.  It  is  the  peculiarities  of  each  that 
make  them  interesting,  and,  however  much  big  cities 
look  alike  at  first  glance,  it  is  not  difficult  to  find  beneath 
the  surface  their  distinct  characteristics. 

Bueuos  Ayres,  then,  “the  city  of  good  air”  may 
rightly  claim  several  superlatives,  and  is  worthy  of  more 
special  description  than  could  be  accorded  to  it  in  the 
last  chapter. 

It  is  the  largest  city  in  South  America,  the  largest  but 
three  in  all  America,  and  second  largest  Roman  Catholic 
city  in  the  world,  the  largest  Spanish -speaking  city  in 
the  world,  the  largest  city  but  one  of  the  Latin  races. 

It  may  be  added  that  it  is  the  most  cosmopolitan  city 
in  the  world,  though  in  this  respect  New  York  and 
Chicago  would  press  it  hard.  Walk  along  Calle  Florida 


208 


PECULIARITIES  OF  BUENOS  AYRES  209 


or  tlie  Avenue  de  Mayo,  and  count  the  languages  you 
hear  in  half  an  hour  !  Spanish  would  predominate,  to 
be  sure ;  but  you  would  hear  almost  as  much  Italian 
spoken,  and  English  (probably  cockney  English)  you 
would  be  quite  sure  to  hear.  That  deep,  strong  guttural 
you  recognize,  as  you  draw  near,  as  German.  That  man 
looking  into  the  shop  window  and  speaking  about  the 
high  prices  marked  on  the  goods  is  a  Swede,  and  that 
black-eyed  couple  talking  so  fast  and  so  musically  are 
Portuguese.  A  man,  whose  decidedly  Scotch  burr  you 
hear  as  we  pass  him,  is  surely  from  u  Glaskie,”  and  the 
next  man,  who  talks  with  his  fingers  and  his  shoulders  as 
well  as  his  mouth,  is  from  la  belle  France. 

Almost  the  only  man  you  will  not  be  likely  to  see  in  a 
short  walk  is  the  American,  and  even  he  is  becoming 
every  year  more  numerous.  A  better  class  of  Americans 
is  coming  into  the  country  ;  and  the  u  American  church/ 1 
three-fourths  of  whose  members  are  English  or  Scotch,  is 
doing  its  full  share  as  a  religious  and  social  organization 
to  rehabilitate  the  good  name  of  America,  which  suf¬ 
fered  so  much  before  the  days  of  the  extradition  treaty. 

Another  characteristic  of  Buenos  Ayres  is  its  air  of 
prosperity.  This  perhaps  is  the  good  air  that  its  name 
signifies.  You  are  tempted  to  think  it  is  a  city  of 
millionaires  at  first.  Magnificent  turn-outs  dash  past  you 
on  the  principal  streets.  Blooded  horses  are  hitched  to 
luxurious  carriages  or  sixty-horse  power  automobiles  even 
more  luxurious  than  the  carriages  sound  their  fog-horns  at 
every  corner. 

Men  and  women  and  lap-dogs,  all  dressed  in  the  height 
of  fashion,  loll  in  the  carriages.  As  stated  in  a  previous 
chapter,  more  multi-millionaires  abound  in  Buenos  Ayres 
than  in  any  city  of  the  world,  I  suppose,  for  every  one 
who  has  made  any  money  in  any  part  of  the  Argentine 
Republic  comes  to  Buenos  Ayres  to  spend  it.  The  vast 


210  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOBTUNITY 


u  estancias”  or  farms  of  from  ten  to  one  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  acres,  owned  largely  by  Buenos  Ayres  nabobs,  pour 
the  wealth  of  their  wheat-fields  and  cattle-ranches  and 
sheepfolds  into  Buenos  Ayres  from  all  the  territory 
within  a  thousand  miles. 

As  the  passer-by  gazes  in  at  the  shop-windows,  he  often 
wonders  how  any  one  but  a  millionaire  can  live  here. 
An  ordinary  derby  hat  (you  could  buy  it  at  home  for  two 
dollars  and  a  half)  costs  twelve  dollars  here,  while  nine¬ 
teen  or  twenty  dollars  is  not  an  unusual  price.  Collars 
are  two  dollars  and  a  half  for  half  a  dozen.  A  lawn 
necktie,  such  as  I  should  buy  for  ten  cents  at  home,  or 
perhaps  five,  the  dealer  unblushingly  said  was  seventy - 
five  cents,  and  kindly  told  me  I  could  have  three  for  two 
dollars.  Three-dollar-and-a-half  boots  cost  nineteen 
dollars,  and  a  good  suit  of  clothes  two  hundred  dollars. 

To  be  sure  Argentine  money  is  worth  less  than  half  of 
ours,  and  so  these  prices  must  be  divided  by  two  to  find 
the  cost  in  gold  ;  but  even  then  they  are  beyond  all  rea¬ 
son,  even  making  allowances  for  high  duties,  cost  of  trans¬ 
portation,  etc. 

It  is  in  the  matter  of  rent  that  the  prices  bear  the 
hardest  on  people  in  moderate  circumstances.  Cheap 
single  rooms  are  advertised  in  the  papers  for  rent  at  two 
and  three  dollars  a  day,  and  suites  of  six  rooms  in  an  un¬ 
fashionable  part  of  the  city  cost  $150  to  $200  a  month, 
while  small  homes  in  fashionable  quarters  are  hard  to 
get  at  a  thousand  dollars  a  month.  In  the  large  hotels 
twelve  dollars  a  day  is  the  minimum  rate,  and  from  that 
the  prices  mount  to  fifty  dollars  a  day. 

How  then  do  poor  people  live,  for  it  can  hardly  be 
supposed  that  all  Buenos  Ayreans  are  millionaires? 
Come  with  me  to  a  u  conventilla  ”  and  I  will  show  you 
how  the  poor  people  exist.  We  enter  a  door  which  opens 
directly  upon  the  sidewalk,  a  door  which  may  be  thf 


PECULIARITIES  OF  BUENOS  AYRES  211 


very  next  neighbour  to  a  millionaire’s  magnificent  palace. 
Inside  this  door  you  see  a  court-yard,  and  around  the 
court  a  multitude  of  smaller  doors.  Perhaps  there  are 
two  stories,  and  in  the  second  story  the  doors  open  into 
a  balcony  over  the  court-yard.  Each  of  these  doors  leads 
to  a  single  room,  and  in  this  room  lives  a  whole  family, 
father,  mother,  children,  and  perhaps  sons-in-law  and 
grandchildren.  Five  or  six  sleep  in  the  same  bed,  and 
the  cooking  is  done  over  a  charcoal  brazier  in  the  court¬ 
yard. 

Several  hundred  people  may  live  and  move  and  have 
their  being  in  a  single  two-story  u  conventilla  ”  and  this 
solves  the  problem  of  existence  (it  is  hard  to  call  it  liv¬ 
ing)  for  the  very  poor  ;  for  provisions  are  not  abnormally 
high,  and  old  clothes  do  not  cost  much  in  any  country. 
The  severest  pinch  comes  to  those  with  a  fixed  salary, 
and  not  an  extravagant  one,  who  wish  to  live  in  decent 
seclusion  with  a  room,  we  will  suppose,  for  each  member, 
or  at  least  for  every  two  members,  of  the  family. 

If  one  can  afford  it,  however,  there  are  few  more  de¬ 
lightful  places  in  the  world  to  live  in  than  Buenos  Ayres. 
In  spite  of  a  rather  high  death  rate,  in  spring  and 
autumn  the  weather  is  delightful.  I  have  seldom  seen 
two  such  glorious  weeks  of  perfect  weather  as  the  two 
I  have  just  spent  there.  The  homes  of  the  well-to-do 
have  a  beautiful  “ patio”  or  miniature  garden  in  the 
middle,  into  which  all  the  rooms  open,  so  that  they  can 
enjoy  fresh  air  and  privacy  at  the  same  time. 

Churches,  clubs,  newspapers  in  all  languages,  and  a 
cosmopolitan  society  where  birds  of  a  feather  flock  to¬ 
gether  according  to  their  tastes  and  proclivities,  give 
each  one  the  social  and  intellectual  and  spiritual  life 
which  he  desires. 

The  prevailing  style  of  architecture,  where  so  many  of 
the  houses  are  of  only  one  story,  is  apt  to  be  flat  and 


212  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


rather  monotonous,  but  there  are  enough  large  and  fine 
buildings  to  relieve  the  monotony.  The  reservoir,  for 
instance,  in  the  heart  of  the  city  is  a  magnificent  build¬ 
ing  costing  millions,  and  covered  with  beautiful  glazed 
tiles  of  various  colours  and  designs.  Some  of  the  school- 
houses  would  do  credit  to  Boston  or  Chicago,  while  La 
Prensa ,  the  leading  daily  paper,  has  the  finest  newspaper 
office  in  the  world.  From  the  top  of  the  magnificent 
edifice  a  winged  Mercury  seems  about  to  run  with  the 
news  of  the  day  to  every  house  in  the  city. 

When  news  of  any  special  importance  is  received,  a 
siren  from  the  top  of  this  building  gives  a  frightful  shriek. 
If  a  cablegram  of  great  good  news  arrives  at  night,  a  big 
white  light  flashes  out  over  the  great  city.  If  it  is  bad 
news,  like  the  San  Francisco  earthquake,  for  instance,  an 
ominous  lurid  red  flash  that  can  be  seen  for  miles  an¬ 
nounces  it.  Within  the  palatial  building  are  reception 
rooms  that  surpass  in  splendour  the  audience-rooms  in 
many  a  king’s  palace.  Free  medical  advice  is  given  daily 
to  all  who  apply  for  it  at  the  doors  of  La  Prensa ,  and  free 
legal  advice  also,  and  scores  avail  themselves  of  this  boon 
every  day.  By  far  the  greatest  Spanish  newspaper  in 
the  world,  this  must  be  ranked  among  the  most  influential 
in  any  language. 

Around  the  great  square  called  the  Plaza  de  Mayo, 
which  celebrates  the  independence  of  Argentina,  May  25, 
1810  (Argentina’s  Fourth  of  July)  are  several  notable 
buildings, — a  great  cathedral  modelled  after  the  church 
of  the  Madeleine  in  Paris,  one  of  the  largest  banks  in 
the  world,  the  stock  exchange  where  speculation  runs 
riot  even  more  than  in  Wall  Street,  and  the  Palace 
of  the  President,  which  also  contains  the  government 
offices. 

Buenos  Ayres  has  many  points  of  interest  which  the 
limits  of  this  volume  do  not  allow  me  to  point  out.  It  is 


PECULIARITIES  OF  BUENOS  AYRES  213 


safe  to  say  that  however  much  one  has  travelled  if  he 
has  not  seen  the  great  city  on  the  Plate  he  has  missed 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  fascinating  cities  in  all  the 
world. 


XXVI 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS 


“  I  See  a  Mountain  ” — Tragedy  and  Comedy  in  Montevideo— Rapid  Re¬ 
cuperation — A  Revolution  Every  Two  Years — “  The  Landing  of  the 
Thirty-Three  ” — The  Blancos  and  the  Colorados— “  Insulting  ”  the 
President— A  Substantial  City — The  Liebig  Extract  Company— A 
Brighter  Future. 


S  one  sails  down  the  great  muddy  estuary  called 


the  River  Plate,  he  sees,  near  the  place  where  it 


debouches  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  a  small  rise 


of  ground  which  almost  anywhere  else  would  escape  ob¬ 
servation.  Here,  however,  with  perfectly  flat  shores  all 
about  and  prairies  extending  back  for  hundreds  of  miles, 
the  one  solitary  hill  assumes  an  impressiveness  out  of  all 
proportion  to  its  size.  The  eye  has  been  so  long  accus¬ 
tomed  to  monotonous  levels  that  it  hails  Cerrito  as  an 
Alpine  wonder.  Some  old  prints  represent  it  as  a  veri¬ 
table  Mont  Blanc,  dominating  the  little  city  that  nestles 
at  its  base. 

It  evidently  appealed  to  the  imagination  of  Ferdinand 
Magellan,  as  he  sailed  by  this  coast  on  his  great  and 
momentous  voyage  around  the  world,  for  he  cried  out : 
“I  see  a  mountain,’7 — Montevideo.  This  was  on  the 
15th  of  January,  1520,  and  since  then  every  one  who  has 
pronounced  the  name  of  the  capital  of  Uruguay  has  said 
the  same,  “  I  see  a  mountain,”  for  that  of  course  is  what 
the  name  means. 

Abound  this  famous  hill  history  has  been  busy  ever 
since,  for  Montevideo  is  Uruguay  in  a  more  emphatic  way 
than  Paris  is  France  or  Buenos  Ayres  is  the  Argentine. 

In  reading  the  story  of  Uruguayan  history  one  is  in 


2U 


URUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS 


215 


doubt  whether  it  savours  more  of  comedy  or  tragedy, 
the  questions  at  issue  often  seem  so  trivial,  the  results  of 
the  conflict  so  bloody  and  the  stage  so  small  as  compared 
with  the  world’s  larger  conflicts. 

The  tragic  element  prevails,  however,  for  the  causes 
of  the  innumerable  wars  were  very  real  and  very  im¬ 
portant  to  the  people  who  took  part  in  them,  since  men 
do  not  bleed  and  die  for  what  they  regard  as  of  no  con¬ 
sequence. 

Another  wonderful  thing  that  strikes  the  student  of 
Uruguayan  history  is  the  rapid  recuperation  of  the  coun¬ 
try  after  the  most  disastrous  foreign  and  civil  wars.  One 
year  we  read  of  the  country  pillaged,  the  city  of  Mon¬ 
tevideo  bombarded  and  sacked,  thousands  of  the  able 
bodied  men  killed  in  war,  and  other  thousands  self- 
exiled  because  of  the  defeat  of  their  party.  The  next 
year  we  read  of  a  great  increase  in  population,  wealth 
and  governmental  revenues,  and  of  unlimited  borrowing 
for  internal  improvements. 

The  fact  is  that  Uruguay,  in  spite  of  her  limited  terri¬ 
tory  and  population,  is  so  rich  in  available  resources, 
chiefly  cattle  and  sheep,  and  has  such  a  commanding  and 
strategic  situation  on  the  Atlantic  coast  that  she  cannot 
be  kept  down  either  by  her  own  foolish  fights  or  by  for¬ 
eign  foes.  She  is  said  to  have  averaged  a  revolution 
every  two  years  for  three-quarters  of  a  century,  and  yet, 
though  each  revolution  sets  her  back  a  twelvemonth  or 
so,  in  the  remaining  peaceful  twelvemonth  she  regains 
the  population  and  wealth  she  lost  and  distinctly  forges 
ahead. 

For  a  long  time  her  history  was  wrapped  up  with  that 
of  her  powerful  neighbours,  Brazil  on  the  north  and  Ar¬ 
gentina  on  the  south.  She  was  embroiled  in  all  their 
wars,  as  well  as  her  own,  and  was  alternately  ruled  by 
one  or  the  other. 


216  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


General  Don  Jos6  Gervasio  Artigas  is  considered  tlie 
founder  of  the  Uruguayan  nation,  though  he  was  never 
chosen  to  office  by  the  people  and  was  disastrously  de¬ 
feated  and  driven  into  exile  by  the  Brazilians  ;  an  exile 
in  which  he  spent  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  life.  He 
was  little  more  than  a  guerilla  chief,  u  who  for  twenty- 
five  years  kept  the  soil  of  Uruguay  and  of  the  Argentine 
Mesopotamia  soaked  in  blood.”  But  he  awakened  na¬ 
tional  aspirations  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  for  this 
reason  he  has  been  canonized  as  a  national  hero,  and  his 
body  buried  in  state  in  Montevideo. 

It  was  my  fortune  to  be  in  Montevideo  on  the  19th  of 
April,  an  anniversary  day  familiar  to  a  Massachusetts 
man,  when  I  found  the  banks  and  shops  closed,  and  the 
city  wearing  a  general  holiday  air.  It  could  not  be,  I 
thought,  that  six  thousand  miles  away  they  were  cele¬ 
brating  the  Concord  fight  and  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
and  I  was  soon  informed  that  it  was  the  anniversary  of 
the  “  Landing  of  the  Thirty-three  ”  ;  a  day  as  religiously 
observed  in  Uruguay  as  the  anniversary  of  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims  in  New  England. 

%And  who  were  the  famous  Thirty-three?  Merely  a 
band  of  adventurers  who,  on  the  19th  of  April,  1825, 
landed  on  the  shores  of  a  river  in  the  southwestern  cor¬ 
ner  of  the  country.  Uruguay  was  then  under  the  domina¬ 
tion  of  Brazil,  and  the  people  in  town  and  country  were 
restive  under  her  sway.  The  famous  Thirty-three  soon 
rallied  to  their  standard  practically  all  the  people.  Even 
the  soldiers  who  were  in  the  pay  of  the  Brazilian  govern¬ 
ment  refused  to  fight  their  compatriots,  their  officers  de¬ 
serted  to  the  enemy,  and  soon,  in  spite  of  desperate  efforts 
on  the  part  of  Brazil,  Uruguay  was  free  and  independent. 

Argentina  favoured  her  cause ;  the  intrepid  Irish  ad¬ 
miral,  William  Brown,  battered  the  Brazilian  fleet  at  sea, 
and  in  1828  Brazil  as  well  as  Argentina,  gave  up  their 


UETJGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS 


217 


claims  to  Uruguay  and  guaranteed  her  independence  for 
five  years. 

But  the  distracted  little  country  was  not  to  enjoy  a  pro¬ 
longed  peace,  for  in  1832  a  civil  war  broke  out,  which 
with  certain  periodic  breathing  spells,  may  be  considered 
to  have  lasted  ever  since.  At  least  the  revolutions  have 
been  so  numerous  that  they  cannot  be  individually  re¬ 
corded  in  a  short  chapter  of  history,  and  few  of  these 
revolutions  have  been  altogether  bloodless. 

During  the  later  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  how¬ 
ever,  they  lost  much  of  their  ferocious  character,  and 
were  little  more  than  political  overturnings,  when  the 
outs  struggled  to  get  in,  and  the  ins  fought  to  stay  in. 
The  “  Blancos,”  the  aristocratic  conservative  party,  was 
always  opposed  by  the  u  Colorados,”  the  democratic 
liberal  party  recruited  largely  from  the  common  people 
and  the  cowboys  of  the  plains,  and  in  the  end  the  Blancos 
were  defeated  and  liberal  ideas  prevailed. 

In  spite  of  these  disturbances,  political,  martial  and 
commercial,  the  country  grew  in  wealth  and  population, 
and  improved  every  breathing  spell  from  war  to  take  an 
advance  step  in  prosperity.  By  1890  the  immigration  to 
Uruguay  had  run  up  to  20,000  a  year,  and  the  popula¬ 
tion  had  increased  to  700,000,  a  gain  of  more  than  100 
per  cent,  in  twelve  years.  In  1897  President  Borda  was 
assassinated  in  the  streets  of  Montevideo,  while  marching 
at  the  head  of  a  religious  procession.  A  grocer’s  clerk 
was  seen  to  walk  deliberately  up  to  him,  press  a  pistol 
against  his  white  shirt-front  and  fire  point  blank.  Of 
course  the  president  fell,  and  he  was  buried  without  a 
post  mortem  examination.  When  the  grocer’s  clerk,  who 
was  arrested  red-handed,  came  to  be  tried  for  his  life,  his 
lawyer  pleaded  that,  according  to  Uruguayan  law,  a  post 
mortem  examination  was  necessary  to  prove  whether  the 
president  died  from  fright,  heart  disease  or  a  pistol  shot, 


218  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


so  his  client  could  not  be  convicted.  The  jury,  strange 
to  say,  took  the  lawyer’s  view  of  the  case,  and  condemned 
the  assassin  to  two  years’  imprisonment  for  u  insulting 
the  president  ”  ; — an  insult  with  a  vengeance,  indeed  !  A 
Philadelphia  lawyer  could  not  have  made  a  more  ingeni¬ 
ous  plea,  or  one  of  our  own  Tammany  juries  executed  a 
worse  travesty  on  Justice. 

Montevideo  strikes  the  tourist,  fresh  from  the  stir  and 
bustle  of  mighty  Buenos  Ayres,  as  rather  a  sleepy  old 
town  and  as  somewhat  commonplace  if  he  comes  from  the 
north,  with  the  glories  of  beautiful  Rio  in  his  eyes.  But 
its  inhabitants  are  never  tired  of  praising  it  for  its  situa¬ 
tion,  its  climate  and  its  sedate  business  ways,  which,  I 
have  been  assured  more  than  once,  are  far  superior  to  the 
greed  for  the  almighty  dollar  evinced  in  Buenos  Ayres 
and  Rio,  and  preeminently  in  the  United  States. 

The  city  has  a  substantial,  old-world  appearance,  and 
when  the  new  electric  street  cars  supplant  all  the  old 
mule  cars,  as  they  very  likely  will  do  before  this  book  is 
printed,  one  great  want  of  easy  communication  will  be 
supplied.  There  are  some  fine  residences  in  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  with  beautiful  gardens  in  which  every  sub¬ 
tropical  plant  will  grow,  and  the  sea  which  surrounds 
the  city  on  every  side  but  one,  brings  salubrious  breezes 
and  bathing  privileges  to  all ;  a  boon  which  the  Buenos 
Ayreans  appreciate,  for  they  flock  hither  in  large  num¬ 
bers  every  summer  for  their  health.  Large  steamers, 
compared  by  one  over-partial  writer  to  the  Fall  River 
boats  between  Boston  and  New  York,  join  the  two  cities 
with  a  nightly  service,  and  the  connection  between  these 
great  cities  of  the  south  both  socially  and  commercially 
is  very  close. 

The  great  wealth  of  Uruguay,  outside  of  Montevideo,  as 
a  business  and  distributing  centre,  is  found  in  her  flocks 
and  herds  which  dot  her  fertile  plains.  Here  is  a  country 


UEUGUAY  AND  URUGUAYANS 


219 


which,  though  it  is  the  smallest  in  South  America,  is  yet 
as  large  as  England,  and  is  practically  one  vast  pasture. 
Every  part  of  it  is  easily  accessible.  There  are  no  lofty 
mountains  and  few  impassable  jungles,  but  it  is  a  country 
of  rich,  luscious  grasses,  where  fat  cattle  and  sheep  thrive 
by  the  million.  One  company  alone,  the  famous  Liebig 
Extract  Company,  which  manufactures  beef  tea  for  the 
world,  owns  1,200,000  acres  in  Uruguay,  Argentina  and 
Paraguay,  but  largely  in  the  former  country.  On  its 
enormous  ranches  are  200,000  horned  cattle  and  60, 000 
sheep,  and  over  six  million  head  of  cattle  have  passed 
through  its  hands  in  the  fifty  years  of  its  existence. 

Twenty-five  hundred  workmen  are  employed  in  this 
business,  and  $17,500,000  have  been  distributed  in  divi¬ 
dends.  These  enormous  figures  show  on  what  a  large 
scale  business  is  sometimes  conducted  even  in  a  little  re¬ 
public. 

The  future  of  Uruguay  will  doubtless  be  less  stormy 
than  the  past, — it  could  hardly  be  more  so.  Those  who 
are  best  informed  assure  me  that  there  are  signs  of  polit¬ 
ical  stability  that  have  never  been  seen  before,  and 
though  there  may  be  periodic  revolutions  in  the  years  to 
come,  they  are  not  likely  to  be  accompanied  by  bloody 
civil  wars,  or  greatly  to  upset  the  course  of  business  and 
social  life. 

The  currency  of  Uruguay  is  on  a  more  stable  basis 
than  that  of  most  of  her  South  American  sisters,  and  a 
paper  dollar  is  worth  a  dollar  in  gold,  the  only  republic 
south  of  the  Mexican  line  of  which  this  is  true.  Prices 
of  living,  especially  of  rents,  is  high  as  in  all  the  coun¬ 
tries  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  South  America,  and  second 
rate  hotels  charge  first-class  New  York  prices.  But  if 
money  goes  easily,  it  comes  easily,  too,  and  foreign  mer¬ 
chants  have  no  reason  to  complain  of  the  state  of  trade. 
Indeed,  among  those  I  met  in  Montevideo,  some  seemed 


220  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUEITY 


to  develop  an  unusual  love  for  their  adopted  laud,  and  a 
tendency  to  depreciate  every  other  in  comparison  with 
it.  One  sign  of  a  country  with  a  future  is  this  faculty 
of  inspiring  the  patriotism  of  adopted  citizens,  a  trait  in 
which  our  own  country  so  preeminently  excels. 

Little  Uruguay  has  certainly  had  her  baptism  of 
blood,  and  if  she  is  not  absorbed  by  her  stronger  neigh¬ 
bours  on  either  side,  she  will  doubtless  have  an  increas¬ 
ingly  prosperous  career,  and  Montevideo  will  always  di¬ 
vide  with  her  great  rival,  Buenos  Ayres,  the  tremendous 
commerce  of  the  Plate. 


4 


XXVII 

PARAGUAY,  THE  ISOLATED 


The  Little  Benjamin — An  Ancient  Country — The  Jesuits  in  Paraguay— 
The  Strange  Reign  of  Dr.  Francia— “  El  Supremo  ”  and  ‘  El  De- 
funto  ” — Lopez,  the  Unscrupulous  Tyrant — A  Terrible  War — Yerba 
Mate— The  Future  of  Paraguay. 

PARAGUAY  is  the  little  Benjamin  among  the  re¬ 
publics  of  South  America,  and,  aside  from 
Panama,  there  are  few  tinier  nations  which  main¬ 
tain  the  paraphernalia  of  government.  About  the  size 
of  the  state  of  Illinois  in  area,  Paraguay  has  a 
population  less  than  greater  Boston  and  about  the  same 
as  Glasgow,  two-thirds  of  whom  are  women  and  nine- 
tenths  of  whom  are  Indians  or  people  with  a  large  ad¬ 
mixture  of  Indian  blood. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  isolated  of  nations,  occupying  its 
unique  position  in  the  very  heart  of  the  continent  as  a  buf¬ 
fer  state  between  Brazil  and  Argentina,  and  removed  from 
the  seacoast  by  a  week’s  journey  on  a  small  steamer  up  a 
tortuous  river.  Yet,  in  spite  of  her  small  size  and  her 
isolation,  her  history  is  most  interesting,  and  gives  an 
example  of  more  experiments  in  government  than  many 
a  larger  and  more  important  state. 

It  is  an  ancient  country,  too,  and  the  first  families  can 
boast  of  having  1 1  come  over  ’ 7  before  the  Mayflower. 
Its  capital  and  chief  city,  Ascuncion,  was  founded  just  a 
hundred  years  before  the  capital  of  Massachusetts,  but 
circumstances  and  devastating  wars  have  prevented  its 
growth,  and  it  is  still  a  large  country  village,  great  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Paraguayans,  but  overtopped  in  popula- 

221 


222  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


tion  by  a  thousand  inconspicuous  towns  in  Europe  and 
America. 

In  fertility  and  natural  agricultural  wealth,  few  coun¬ 
tries,  however,  can  outrank  Paraguay,  and  the  fact  that 
she  has  maintained  her  independence  during  all  these 
years  when  surrounded  by  greater  and  richer  neighbours, 
certainly  speaks  well  for  the  patriotism  and  prowess  of 
her  people. 

The  earliest  history  of  Paraguay  is  uneventful.  She 
seems  to  have  felt  but  lightly  the  Spanish  yoke,  which 
perhaps  was  hardly  thought  worth  imposing.  To  be 
sure,  there  was  in  the  early  days  a  nominal  Spanish  gov¬ 
ernor  at  Ascuncion,  but  the  larger  part  of  Paraguay  was 
under  the  control  of  the  Jesuit  priests  who  protected 
while  they  half  enslaved  the  Indians,  rendering  them 
entirely  obedient  to  their  commands. 

It  must  be  said  for  the  Jesuits,  however,  that  they 
treated  the  Indians  far  better  than  any  of  the  other  white 
settlers.  They  had  some  regard  for  their  evangelization  ; 
they  introduced  some  of  the  arts  of  civilization  ;  they  im¬ 
proved  the  agriculture  of  the  Indians,  and  increased 
their  wealth,  and  at  great  personal  sacrifice  and  risk  on 
their  own  part,  pushed  their  discoveries  far  up  into  the 
interior  of  South  America,  where,  even  to-day,  white  men 
hesitate  to  go.  They  seem,  too,  to  have  ingrained  into 
the  Guarany  character  habits  of  implicit  and  unquestion¬ 
ing  obedience,  which  served  well  the  later  tyrants  and 
despots  of  Paraguay,  who  were  able  in  the  bloody 
wars  that  have  marked  the  early  part  of  the  last  half 
century  to  lead  their  troops  to  death  or  victory. 

But  the  Brazilians  on  the  north  and  the  Creoles  of 
Ascuncion  alike  hated  the  Jesuits,  and  feared  their  in¬ 
creasing  control  over  the  docile  Indians,  and,  between 
the  two,  the  Jesuits  fared  badly,  first  being  driven  out 
of  their  hard -won  possessions  in  the  north  and  then,  a 


PARAGUAY,  THE  ISOLATED 


223 


century  later,  being  expelled  from  the  fertile  lands  in  the 
south,  to  which  they  had  fled  from  the  Paulistas,  the 
warlike  settlers  of  the  Sao  Paulo  province  of  Brazil. 

The  interesting  period  of  Paraguay’s  history  began  with 
the  eighteenth  century  when  they  shared  to  some  extent 
the  intellectual  and  political  ferment  of  the  rest  of  South 
America.  In  Paraguay,  however,  there  was  little  desire 
for  real  republican  institutions.  The  people  had  been 
trained  too  long  and  too  well  in  obedience  to  priests  and 
the  powers  that  be,  to  care  for  even  the  semblance  of 
power,  that  was  demanded  in  other  countries,  and  they 
only  waited  for  a  strong  and  determined  man  to  take 
control  and  guide  the  affairs  of  their  little  state. 

The  man  and  the  opportunity  met,  and  the  man  was 
Dr.  Francia,  one  of  the  strangest,  strongest  characters 
who  ever  wrote  his  name  on  the  page  of  history.  Carlyle 
has  numbered  him  among  his  heroes,  and  if  a  hero  is 
simply  a  man  who  breaks  away  all  opposition  and  rides 
over  and  tramples  down  all  his  opponents,  Francia  was 
certainly  a  hero.  The  Beatitudes,  however,  were  far  from 
his  ideals,  and  the  peace  he  imposed  on  his  countrymen 
was  the  peace  of  death,  fear  and  stagnation.  Francia, 
however,  had  his  good  points.  As  a  lawyer  he  had  un¬ 
dertaken  the  cause  of  the  poor  against  the  rich.  He  al¬ 
ways  seemed  to  try  to  execute  justice  in  his  own  high 
handed,  tyrannical  way,  and,  though  he  imprisoned  and 
killed  friend  and  foe  alike  when  it  suited  his  purpose,  he 
never  lost  the  confidence  and  goodwill  of  the  Indians 
with  whom  he  invariably  sided  against  the  Spaniards 
and  Creoles. 

In  1815  this  remarkable  man  was  chosen  one  of  the 
two  consuls  of  Paraguay.  The  other  consul,  an  ignorant 
soldier,  he  soon  pushed  out  of  his  ambitious  way,  and 
from  that  day  until  the  hour  of  his  death  in  1848  at  the 
age  of  eighty-three,  he  reigned  alone  and  unchallenged, 


224  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


a  more  absolute  monarch  in  his  small  domain  than  ever 
sat  upon  the  throne  of  Russia.  He  had  himself  formally- 
declared  “  Supreme  and  Perpetual  Dictator,”  and  as¬ 
sumed  the  title  of  “El  Supremo.” 

His  strange  power  has  thus  been  graphically  described  : 
“As  he  grew  older  he  became  more  solitary  and  fero¬ 
cious.  .  .  .  His  severities  against  the  educated 

classes  increased.  He  suffered  from  frequent  attacks  of 
hypochondria.  He  ordered  wholesale  executions,  and 
when  he  died  700  political  prisoners  filled  the  jails.  His 
moroseness  increased  year  by  year.  He  feared  assassina¬ 
tion  and  occupied  several  houses,  letting  no  one  know 
where  he  was  going  to  sleep  from  one  night  to  another, 
and  when  walking  the  streets  kept  his  guards  at  a  dis¬ 
tance  before  and  behind.  Woe  to  the  enemy  or  suspect 
that  attracted  his  attention  !  Such  was  the  terror  in¬ 
spired  by  the  dreadful  old  man  that  the  news  that  he  was 
out  would  clear  the  streets.  A  white  Paraguayan  dared 
not  utter  his  name.  During  his  lifetime  he  was  1 L  El 
Supremo,”  and  after  he  was  dead  for  generations  he  was 
referred  to  simply  as  “El  Defunto.”  For  years  when 
men  spoke  of  him  they  looked  behind  them  and  crossed 
themselves  as  if  dreading  that  the  mighty  old  man  could 
send  devils  to  spy  upon  them, — at  least  this  is  the  story 
of  Francia’s  enemies,  who  have  made  it  their  business  to 
hand  his  name  down  to  execration.”  1 

During  the  twenty-six  years  of  Francia’s  dictatorship 
he  absolutely  forbade  all  external  commerce.  Not  a  ship 
could  sail  up  or  down  the  great  Paraguay  River  without 
his  permission,  a  permission  rarely  granted.  Paraguay 
became  a  self-sufficing  state,  raising  its  own  food,  carding 
its  own  wool,  building  its  own  houses,  neither  sending 
nor  receiving  ministers  or  consuls  ;  it  was  more  isolated 


Dawson’s  “South  American  Republics.” 


PAEAGUAY,  THE  ISOLATED 


225 


than  China  or  Corea  when  their  barriers  against  the  out¬ 
side  world  were  the  highest. 

Though  of  course  there  was  little  progress  under 
such  conditions,  there  was  doubtless  little  physical 
suffering.  Oranges,  bananas  and  other  fruits  of  the  earth 
grow  spontaneously  in  that  mild  climate  and  fruitful 
soil ;  and  though  there  was  little  money  in  circulation 
there  was  little  need  of  it.  A  fat  bullock  it  is  said, 
could  be  bought  for  a  dollar,  and  most  men  did  not  need 
even  the  dollar,  for  they  raised  their  own  bullock. 

But  such  a  state  of  affairs  must  come  to  an  end.  It 
was  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and 
when  stern  old  Erancia  died  he  was  succeeded  by  a 
tyrant,  to  be  sure,  but  by  a  more  moderate  tyrant,  the 
elder  Lopez,  who  reversed  the  policy  of  his  predecessor, 
opened  his  ports  to  commerce,  and  even  encouraged  the 
coming  of  foreigners  until  he  found  that  he  could  not 
welcome  other  foreigners  and  exclude  Brazilians  whom 
he  regarded  as  his  mortal  foes. 

At  first  Americans  were  in  high  favour  and  received 
some  concessions,  but  soon  they  fell  into  disrepute  with 
Lopez,  who  drove  them  and  all  other  foreigners  from  his 
domains. 

Lopez  was  succeeded  in  the  dictatorship  by  his  son, 
Francisco  Lopez,  as  corrupt  and  unscrupulous  a  tyrant 
as  ever  seized  the  reins  of  power.  He  managed  to  em¬ 
broil  himself  with  Brazil,  Argentina  and  Uruguay  at  the 
same  time,  and  one  of  the  bloodiest  and  most  protracted 
wars  of  modern  history  ensued. 

It  seems  strange  that  these  adjectives  can  be  applied  to 
a  war  waged  by  a  little  country  with  the  population  of  a 
moderate  modern  city  scattered  over  the  wilds  of  South 
America;  but  when  we  remember  that  this  war  was 
waged  relentlessly  from  1864  to  1870,  and  that  in  this 
time  11  no  less  than  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 


226  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Paraguayan  men — the  fathers  and  breadwinners,  the 
farmers  and  labourers, — had  perished  in  battle,  by  dis¬ 
ease  or  exposure  or  starvation,  and  that  one  hundred 
thousand  adult  women  had  died  of  hardships  and  hunger,” 
we  see  that  this  description  of  the  war  is  not  overdrawn. 
The  proportion  of  the  dead  to  the  living  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  was  appalling,  for,  we  are  told,  that  out  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  able-bodied  men  who  were 
living  in  1864,  less  than  twenty -five  thousand  survived  in 
1870.  Had  twenty  millions  of  men  perished  on  both 
sides  in  the  American  civil  war,  the  proportion  of  slain 
would  not  have  been  greater  than  of  the  Paraguayans 
who  gave  up  their  lives  at  the  behest  of  a  miserable  tyrant 
in  that  awful  half  decade  which  followed  our  own  civil 
war.  At  the  end  of  the  Paraguayan  war,  the  women  out¬ 
numbered  the  men  five  to  one,  and  there  were  only  90,000 
children  left  in  the  country.  The  allies  of  Brazil,  Argen¬ 
tina  and  Uruguay  suffered  great  losses  in  men  and  treas¬ 
ure,  but  compared  with  their  resources,  their  losses  were 
slight. 

Since  1870,  happily,  the  history  of  Paraguay  has  been 
uneventful,  and  she  has  beeu  gradually  recuperating 
her  resources  and  growing  a  new  crop  of  men  and 
women. 

Regular  weekly  communication  is  kept  up  with  Buenos 
Ayres  by  two  lines  of  fairly  comfortable  steamers,  and 
the  commerce  of  the  country  is  already  considerable, 
consisting  of  hides,  wool,  precious  woods,  and  yerba 
mate.  Mate  (pronounced  in  two  syllables)  is  a  unique 
product  confined  largely  to  Paraguay  and  is  worth  a 
paragraph  of  description.  It  is  seldom  heard  of  in  the 
northern  hemisphere,  but  is  the  favourite  and  universal 
drink  of  twenty  millions  of  people  of  the  southern  hemi¬ 
sphere.  What  tea  is  to  the  Englishman  and  Australian, 
what  coffee  is  to  the  American  and  the  Turk,  mate  is  to 


PARAGUAY,  THE  ISOLATED 


227 


the  Argentinian,  Paraguayan,  Urguayan,  and  many 
Brazilians.  It  is  also  largely  drunk  in  Chile  and  Peru. 
Make  a  dozen  calls  in  an  afternoon  in  some  circles  of 
Buenos  Ayres,  and  you  will  be  treated  to  a  dozen  cups  of 
mate. 

The  trees  grow  wild  in  large  sections  of  Paraguay,  and 
the  leaves  are  carefully  dried  and  packed  in  bales,  cov¬ 
ered  with  raw  hides,  and  thence  transported  to  all  parts 
of  South  America.  When  it  reaches  its  destination,  in 
the  kitchen  of  the  good  housewife,  it  is  reduced  to  pow¬ 
der,  and  placed  in  curious  shaped  gourds  in  which  a  lib¬ 
eral  supply  of  sugar  has  previously  been  burned  with 
live  coals.  Then  hot  water  is  poured  on  the  powdered 
leaves,  and  the  concoction  is  sucked  through  a  silver  or 
wooden  tube,  whose  end  is  protected  by  a  strainer  to  pre¬ 
vent  the  grounds  from  getting  in. 

A  genuine  love  for  mate  must  be  acquired,  but  that  it 
is  not  difficult  of  acquisition  is  proved  by  the  twenty 
millions  whose  constant  beverage  it  is.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  harmless  of  stimulants,  soothing  rather  than  irritat¬ 
ing  to  the  nerves,  and  it  would  be  well  if  our  tea  and 
coffee  topers  would  turn  their  attention  to  mate,  and  if  it 
could  be  introduced  to  the  frayed  American  nervous  sys¬ 
tem  by  some  enterprising  and  philanthropic  firm  of  pur¬ 
veyors  of  new  drinks. 

To  turn  once  more  from  Paraguay  tea  to  Paraguay  re¬ 
public  : — there  is  little  doubt  that  if  this  tiny  nation 
keeps  on  in  her  present  course  of  peaceful  development, 
she  has  an  honourable  and  comfortable,  if  not  a  great 
future,  before  her.  She  has  sufficient  territory,  a  most 
fertile  soil,  a  good  variety  of  agricultural  products,  and  a 
brave  and  patriotic  people.  They  have  proved  their 
valour  as  soldiers,  it  now  remains  for  them  to  prove  their 
worth  in  paths  of  peace. 

This  they  will  doubtless  do,  and  those  who  have 


228  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


watched  the  troubled  and  war-shattered  past  of  Paraguay 
will  watch  with  new  interest  the  rejuvenescence  and 
progress  of  this  isolated  Indian  Republic  of  the  new 
world. 


BRAZIL,  THE  BOUNDLESS 


Tke  Vast  Size  of  Brazil — The  Sailing  Orders  of  Yasco  de  Gama — The  Sd 
of  May,  1500 — What  Cabral  Found — Brazil’s  Many  Sources  of  Wealth 
— Agassiz’s  Opinion — Brazil  Wood — The  Paulistas — What  Portugal 
Did  for  Brazil— The  Coming  of  the  Jesuits — The  French  Huguenots 
—The  Dutch  Occupation — The  Discovery  of  Diamonds — Brazil  as  an 
Empire — Dom  Pedro’s  Good  Eeign— Brazil  as  a  Kepublic. 

THE  title  of  this  chapter  is  not  so  much  of  an  ex. 

aggeration  as  it  might  seem  at  first  glance,  for 
Brazil  is  not  only  a  country  of  enormous  size, 
but  on  the  west  and  north  her  boundaries  are  still  in  dis¬ 
pute  and  unsettled,  as  they  have  been  for  many  years. 
Compared,  too,  with  the  tiny  republics  to  the  south, 
Uruguay  and  Paraguay,  Brazil  seems  a  boundless  empire, 
embracing  as  she  does  one-half  the  territory  and  more 
than  half  the  population  of  the  continent.  Her  domains 
are  as  large  as  the  island  continent  of  Australia,  and  ex¬ 
ceed  the  area  of  the  continental  United  States,  leaving 
out  Alaska. 

“Sail  directly  south  after  leaving  the  Cape  Yerde 
Islands  in  14°  north,  as  long  as  the  wind  is  favourable. 
If  forced  to  change  your  course  keep  on  the  starboard 
tack  until  you  reach  the  latitude  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  34°  south,  then  bear  away  to  the  east.”  Such 
were  the  sailing  orders  which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
Brazil.  They  were  given  by  the  celebrated  navigator 
Yasco  de  Gama  to  his  lieutenant  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral, 
a  Portuguese  nobleman,  who  was  about  to  sail  for  the 
East  Indies.  On  the  9th  of  March,  1500,  Cabral  set  sail 

229 


230  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


from  Lisbon,  and  on  the  3d  of  May  (new  style)  he  sighted 
the  shores  of  Brazil  where  it  bulges  out  into  the  Atlantic, 
as  though  about  to  shake  hands  with  Africa  on  the  op¬ 
posite  hemisphere.  The  landfall  that  Cabral  made  was 
south  of  Bahia  in  the  present  state  of  the  same  name,  and 
Brazil  still  keeps  green  the  memory  of  her  discovery,  by 
an  annual  holiday. 

Being  in  the  city  of  Sao  Paulo  on  the  3d  of  May,  four 
hundred  and  seven  years  after  the  discovery,  I  found 
everybody  keeping  holiday,  while  on  the  day  before 
even  the  kindergarten  children,  in  anticipation  of  the 
holiday,  were  cutting  out  Cabrals  picture  and  pasting  it 
on  a  paper  ship  of  their  own  make  to  show  their  loyalty 
to  his  memory. 

Cabral  found  the  country  inhabited  by  peaceful  Indians 
of  a  low  grade  of  intelligence,  except  the  Arawaks  who 
were  said  to  have  cultivated  the  soil,  woven  cloth  and 
made  rude  pottery.  No  such  civilization  was  found, 
however,  as  the  Spaniards  discovered  on  the  other  side 
of  South  America  among  the  Incas  of  the  Andes,  and  the 
early  settlers  of  Brazil  had  comparatively  little  trouble 
in  subduing  and  even  enslaving  many  of  the  Indians. 
The  aborigines  were  not  sufficiently  strong  physically  or 
mentally,  or  sufficiently  reproductive,  to  long  withstand 
the  incursions  of  the  white  men,  and  they  have  never 
formed  an  important  factor  in  the  life  of  Brazil,  as  have 
the  Indians  of  Chile,  Peru  and  Bolivia  in  the  countries 
west  of  the  Andes. 

Brazil  owes  its  predominant  importance  among  the 
South  American  States  to  the  productiveness  of  its  soil 
and  the  variety  of  its  resources,  quite  as  much  as  to  its 
vast  size.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  every  product  that 
makes  for  the  comfort  and  wealth  of  mankind  is  found  in 
Brazil.  Coffee,  sugar,  cotton,  rubber,  corn,  wheat,  dia¬ 
monds,  gold,  are  only  a  few  of  her  products,  and  the  un- 


BRAZIL,  THE  BOUNDLESS 


231 


developed  and  even  unexplored  wealth  of  the  country  is 
infinitely  greater  than  that  which  can  be  catalogued. 

The  country  rises  abruptly  but  not  inaccessibly  from 
the  shore  for  hundreds  of  miles,  and  the  table-lands  that 
lie  back  from  the  coast  at  a  height  of  two  or  three  thou¬ 
sand  feet  enjoy  all  the  blessings  of  a  temperate  climate 
even  when  they  lie  within  the  tropics.  Moreover,  the 
rainfall  throughout  almost  the  entire  length  and  breadth 
of  Brazil  is  sufficient  to  produce  the  most  luxuriant  vege¬ 
tation  in  the  world,  a  luxuriance  which  led  Amerigo 
Yespucci,  the  navigator  who  gave  his  name  to  both  con¬ 
tinents,  to  say  that  “if  Paradise  did  exist  on  this  planet, 
it  could  not  be  far  from  the  Brazilian  coast,”  while 
Agassiz  believed  that  “the  future  centre  of  the  civ¬ 
ilization  of  the  world  would  be  in  the  Amazon  valley.” 

The  contrast  in  respect  to  verdure  and  vegetation  be¬ 
tween  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  South  America  is  as 
the  difference  between  the  garden  of  Eden  and  the 
desert  of  Sahara.  On  the  west  coast  for  twenty-five  hun¬ 
dred  miles  one  scarcely  sees  a  tree  or  a  blade  of  grass, 
only  sand- swept  mountains,  grand  and  impressive,  to  be 
sure,  but  forbidding  in  the  extreme. 

Throughout  the  vast  coast  line  of  Brazil  one  can 
hardly  conceive  how  another  blade  of  grass  could  grow 
or  another  tree  could  stand  in  the  crowded,  luxuriant 
vegetation  that  now  occupies  the  soil.  Here,  too,  the 
largest  river  in  the  world  pours  its  flood  of  waters  into 
the  Atlantic,  and  on  its  waters  one  can  penetrate  not 
only  into  the  heart  of  the  continent,  but  far  over  to  the 
other  side,  by  the  tributaries  of  the  Amazon,  one  can 
reach  the  rich  mines  of  Bolivia  and  Peru. 

Such  was  the  country  of  almost  inconceivable  potential 
wealth  that  was  discovered  by  the  Portuguese  navigator 
on  that  memorable  3d  of  May  in  the  first  year  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  For  a  long  time,  however,  Cabral’s 


232  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


discovery  was  put  to  little  practical  account,  for  neither 
gold  nor  silver  were  discovered  for  many  years,  and  a 
country  that  did  not  produce  either  of  the  precious 
metals  was  considered  of  no  value  by  the  gold -dazzled 
Portuguese  and  Spaniards  who  then  controlled  the  des¬ 
tinies  of  the  new  world. 

But  Brazil  did  produce  in  great  quantities  a  dye  wood 
much  esteemed  in  Europe  and  named  “Brazil  wood” 
long  before  the  country  took  the  same  name.  It  means 
“wood  the  colour  of  fire,”  and  the  traveller  in  Rio  Janeiro 
to-day  sees  in  the  centre  of  the  Avenida  Central,  unquali¬ 
fiedly  the  most  beautiful  street  in  all  the  world,  a  long 
row  of  these  trees  from  which  Brazil  took  its  name. 

Hunters  for  Brazil  wood  brought  many  ships  to  her 
shores,  and  little  by  little  it  was  suspected  that 
other  valuable  products  might  grow  in  the  “land  of 
Brazil  wood.”  Solitary  colonists  began  to  push  into  the 
interior,  marry  Indian  wives,  and  form  the  nucleus  of 
future  colonies.  One  of  the  most  enterprising  of  these 
adventurers  was  John  Ramalho,  who  settled  near  the 
present  great  city  of  Sao  Paulo.  Others  followed  him, 
and  then  the  “Paulistas,”  as  they  are  called,  became  a 
distinct  factor  in  the  development  of  Brazil  as  they  have 
remained  ever  since.  The  Paulistas  spread  over  the 
open  plains  of  the  interior,  overran  the  country  to  the 
south  and  west,  even  descended  into  Paraguay,  and  drove 
the  Jesuits  out  of  their  hard-earned  settlements.  “They 
were  the  pioneers  of  Brazil,”  says  Dawson,  “  correspond¬ 
ing  in  character  and  habits,  in  the  virtues  of  daring, 
hospitality  and  self-confidence,  and  in  the  vices  of 
cruelty,  rudeness  and  ignorance,  with  the  pioneers  of  the 
Mississippi  valley.”  To  this  day  the  Paulistas  are 
the  most  enterprising  and  progressive  citizens  of  Brazil, 
and  Sao  Paulo  the  most  advanced  of  all  the  states. 

Another  distinguishing  characteristic  of  Brazil  that 


BRAZIL,  THE  BOUNDLESS 


233 


differentiated  it  from  all  the  other  countries  of  South 
America  is  that  it  was  settled  by  the  Portuguese.  To  the 
superficial  observer  it  would  seem  to  make  very  little 
difference  whether  one  nation  or  the  other  of  the  Iberian 
Peninsula  furnished  the  first  settlers  for  a  country,  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  very  decided  differences 
between  Spanish  and  Portuguese  America  ;  differences  of 
language,  differences  of  architecture,  differences  of  tra¬ 
dition  and  ideals.  Every  old  house  in  Brazil,  and  many 
modern  ones,  will  testify  that  the  first  settlers  were  Por¬ 
tuguese  and  not  Spaniards,  for  we  find  none  of  the  open 
patios  or  inside  gardens  which  make  Spanish  houses  so 
attractive,  but  high,  closely-built  brick  walls,  with  scant 
and  small  windows, — an  architecture  not  at  all  suited  to 
the  tropics. 

Fortunately  for  Brazil  the  early  settlers  came  from 
Portugal  in  the  brief  golden  age  of  that  little  kingdom, 
and  brought  with  them  ideals  of  personal  and  political 
liberty  which  never  died  out  of  their  descendants. 
Through  these  valiant  men  that  little  strip  of  country  on 
the  coast  of  Spain  has  set  her  impress  indelibly  on  the 
richest  half  of  South  America,  and  to-day  four  times  as 
many  people  speak  the  Portuguese  language  in  the  new 
and  greater  Portugal  across  the  seas  as  in  the  mother  land. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  in  the  history  of 
Brazil  is  the  coming  of  the  Jesuits,  who  under  Father 
Jose  de  Anchieta,  poet,  hero  and  saint,  and  his  con¬ 
temporaries,  penetrated  into  the  wilds  of  Brazil,  count¬ 
ing  not  their  lives  dear  unto  them,  and  converting  the 
Indians,  at  least  nominally,  by  the  tens  of  thousands. 
Father  Anchieta  was  a  contemporary  of  Francis  Xavier, 
the  founder  of  the  order,  and  exhibited  all  the  intrepid 
zeal  and  unlimited  capacity  for  self-sacrifice  which  char¬ 
acterized  the  Jesuits  in  earlier  and  better  days. 

One  cannot  help  sympathizing  with  these  heroic  mis- 


234  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


sionaries,  however  one  may  deprecate  their  politics  and 
their  casuistry,  for  they  were  the  only  real  friends  the 
Indians  had,  in  the  early  days  of  South  America.  They 
protected  the  aborigines,  instructed  them  in  the  arts  of 
agriculture,  brought  them  together  for  their  safety  in 
fortified  towns,  which  seemed  as  harbours  of  refuge  for 
runaway  slaves,  escaping  the  intolerable  cruelties  of  their 
taskmasters.  For  this  reason  the  Jesuits  were  hated  by 
the  settlers,  especially  by  the  Paulistas,  who  pursued 
them  relentlessly  and  at  last  broke  their  power,  and 
largely  drove  them  out  of  large  sections  of  Brazil,  but 
not  before  they  had  left  a  mark  on  the  country  that  will 
never  be  effaced. 

More  than  once  during  the  early  centuries  of  Brazilian 
history,  the  ownership  and  future  colonization  of  the 
country  hung  in  the  balance,  and  it  looked  as  though  a 
Calvinistic  rather  than  a  Catholic  civilization  would  pre¬ 
vail.  About  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  strong 
expedition  of  French  Huguenots,  under  Nicolas  Ville- 
gagnon,  was  sent  against  Rio.  It  effected  a  landing  on 
an  island  in  the  harbour  which  to  this  day  is  called 
Villegagnon’s  Island,  and  gave  promise  of  dominating 
the  city  and  perhaps  all  Brazil.  But  at  the  critical  mo¬ 
ment  the  traitor  Yillegagnon  sold  out  his  own  people, 
went  over  to  the  Catholic  party,  and  returned  to  France, 
and  the  hopes  of  Admiral  Coligny  and  the  Huguenots  of 
establishing  a  great  Protestant  colony  in  South  America, 
were  frustrated  forever. 

More  seriously  still  was  the  Portuguese  power  in  Brazil 
threatened  by  the  Dutch.  In  fact,  for  some  years,  the 
Hollanders  ruled  the  greater  part  of  Brazil,  holding 
Pernambuco,  Bahia  and  all  the  northern  part  of  the 
country  in  an  apparently  secure  grasp.  But  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company  which  had  undertaken  the  conquest 
of  Brazil,  was  not  heartily  backed  up  by  the  home  gov- 


BRAZIL,  THE  BOUNDLESS 


235 


eminent,  and  after  twenty-five  years  of  desultory  warfare 
and  varied  successes  and  defeats,  the  Dutch  commander 
of  Pernambuco  surrendered  on  the  26th  of  January,  1655, 
and  with  this  surrender  “four  provinces,  three  cities, 
eight  towns,  fourteen  fortified  places,  and  nine  hundred 
miles  of  coast  were  restored  to  the  Portuguese  crown.” 
It  was  in  large  measure  a  religious  war,  for  the  devout 
Portuguese  Catholic  detested  the  Calvinistic  Hollanders 
with  all  the  rancour  of  theological  hatred,  and  were  de¬ 
termined  to  drive  the  heretical  foreigners  from  their 
shores. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  1690,  and  of  diamonds  in  1729, 
gave  a  tremendous  impetus  to  immigration,  and  whole 
sections  of  Portugal  seemed  in  danger  of  depopulation  in 
consequence.  The  discovery  of  diamonds  was  as  romantic 
as  in  the  Kimberly  district  of  South  Africa.  Some 
miners  who  were  washing  gold  in  the  camp  at  Tijuca 
found  some  shining  pebbles  in  the  bottom  of  their  pans, 
which  they  used  as  counters  in  their  games  for  a  long 
time.  At  last  a  wandering  friar  who  had  been  in  India 
declared  them  to  be  diamonds,  and  during  the  next  forty 
years  five  million  carats  of  these  little  shining  stones 
went  to  deck  the  necks  and  fingers  of  European  beauties. 
Even  to-day  these  diamond  mines,  next  to  those  in 
Kimberly,  are  the  richest  in  the  world. 

We  must  hasten  over  the  uneventful  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  Brazilian  history,  and  come  down 
to  the  year  1807,  when  Napoleon’s  power  and  prestige 
were  at  their  zenith,  and  he  had  all  Europe  except  Great 
Britain  at  his  feet.  Portugal  was  one  of  these  countries, 
and  when  he  learned  that  the  cowardly  John  IV,  the 
Prince  Regent  of  Portugal,  was  playing  fast  and  loose 
with  him,  and  at  the  same  time  courting  England’s 
favour,  he  sent  Junot  to  capture  Lisbon. 

Just  as  Junot  entered  the  city,  Prince  John  with  fifteen 


236  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


thousand  of  the  nobility  and  fifty  millions  of  treasure 
sailed  out  of  the  harbour,  under  convoy  of  the  British 
fleet,  bound  for  Brazil, — the  greater  Portugal  across  the 
seas.  Six  weeks  later  he  reached  Brazil  and  was  received 
with  open  arms  and  great  enthusiasm  by  the  Brazilians, 
who  were  now  to  have  a  ruler  of  their  own  on  their  own 
soil. 

John  was  a  wretchedly  weak  prince,  and  when  the 
liberal  spirit  awoke  in  Portugal,  and  spread  to  Brazil, 
much  against  his  will  he  agreed  to  give  his  people  a 
liberal  constitution,  which  indeed  had  already  been 
promised  by  his  son,  Prince  Pedro.  Mr.  Dawson  gives 
the  following  graphic  account  of  the  event : 

“On  the  26th  of  February  (1821)  a  great  crowd  as¬ 
sembled  in  the  streets  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  while  the 
cowardly  king  skulked  in  his  suburban  palace,  the  Prince 
Pedro  addressed  the  people,  swearing  in  his  father’s  name 
and  his  own  to  accept  unreservedly  the  expected  con¬ 
stitution.  The  multitude  insisted  on  marching  out  to 
the  king’s  palace  to  show  their  enthusiastic  gratitude. 
Trembling  with  fear  John,  who  did  not  know  why  they 
had  come,  was  forced  to  get  into  his  carriage,  and  the 
miserable  man  was  frightened  out  of  his  wits  when  the 
crowd  took  the  horses  out  to  drag  him  with  their  own 
hands.  He  fainted  away  and  when  he  recovered  his 
senses  sat  snivelling  and  protesting  between  his  sobs  his 
willingness  to  agree  to  anything,  fearing  that  he  was 
going  to  suffer  the  fate  of  Louis  XYI.  Thereafter,  Dom 
Pedro,  though  only  twenty-two  years  old,  was  the 
principal  figure  in  Brazil.” 

Soon  after  this  the  pusillanimous  Prince  Regent  de¬ 
parted  for  Portugal,  and  his  son  who  became  Dom  Pe¬ 
dro  I  reigned  in  his  stead.  Brazil  shortly  afterwards  be¬ 
came  independent  of  Portugal  with  Dom  Pedro  as  the 
first  emperor. 


237 


BRAZIL,  THE  BOUNDLESS 

He  was  brave,  ambitions,  unscrupulous  and  thoroughly 
depraved  in  his  private  life,  and  he  soon  lost  his  hold  on 
the  affections  and  loyalty  of  his  people,  and  in  1831  ab¬ 
dicated  in  favour  of  his  young  son  and  took  refuge  on 
a  British  warship.  A  few  years  of  regency  followed, 
and  then  as  the  people  could  agree  on  no  other  ruler, 
they  called  the  boy  of  fifteen  to  the  throne  who  was 
known  throughout  all  his  long  and  good  reign  of  fifty 
years,  as  Dorn  Pedro  H. 

A  simple,  good-natured,  democratic,  scholarly  man,  he 
grew  up  to  be,  caring  more  for  his  books  than  for  state¬ 
craft,  and  mingling  on  the  most  familiar  and  friendly 
terms  with  his  people.  He  would  go  about  irr  shabby 
clothes  and  with  a  slouchy  gait,  and  yet  he  was  so  genuine 
and  kindly,  and  so  virtuous  in  his  private  life,  that  his 
people  thoroughly  loved  him,  and  his  influence  was  alto¬ 
gether  for  good.  He  spent  much  of  his  time  in  Petropo- 
lis,  a  lovely  mountain  resort  twenty-five  miles  from  Rio, 
where  all  of  the  diplomats  live  to  this  day,  and  I  was  told 
by  old  residents  that  his  favourite  daily  amusement  was 
to  go  to  the  railway  station  on  the  arrival  of  the  one  train 
from  the  capital,  and  there  to  embrace  his  friends  in  the 
Brazilian  style,  and  shake  hands  with  all  the  foreign 
passengers.  To  this  day  the  arrival  and  departure  of  the 
afternoon  train  is  an  event  in  Petropolis,  and  in  their 
best  clothes  the  inhabitants  flock  to  the  station  to  wel¬ 
come  the  coming  and  speed  the  parting  guest. 

In  1876  Dom  Pedro  visited  the  United  States,  and  was 
greatly  interested  in  the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Phil¬ 
adelphia,  where  he  spent  much  time.  It  is  said  that 
the  sudden  impetus  which  Brazil  received  in  industrial 
and  commercial  affairs  dates  from  that  memorable  visit. 

However,  in  spite  of  Dom  Pedro’s  popularity  and 
goodness  of  heart  and  republican  simplicity,  he  was  not 
destined  to  finish  his  life  as  Emperor  of  Brazil.  For 


238  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


fifty  years  he  reigned  and  reigned  well,  but  he  frequently 
said  that  he  was  preparing  the  way  for  a  republic.  And 
so  it  proved,  for  one  November  night  in  1889  the  emperor 
was  quietly  informed  by  the  provisional  government 
that  he  was  deposed  and  that  henceforth  Brazil  was  a 
federal  republic. 

During  the  night  the  emperor  and  his  family  were  put 
on  shipboard  and  sent  off  to  Lisbon,  and  the  new  repub¬ 
lic  was  born.  The  good  emperor  acquiesced  in  his  de¬ 
position  with  excellent  grace,  and  preferred  perpetual 
exile  from  his  beloved  Brazil,  rather  than  that  a  drop  of 
Brazilian  blood  should  be  unnecessarily  spilled.  While 
I  was  in  Brazil  in  May,  1907,  the  grandson  of  the  good 
emperor  came  to  Rio,  but  for  prudential  reasons  he  was 
not  allowed  to  land,  and  no  monarchical  excitement  was 
created  by  the  event. 

The  republic  has  had  one  or  two  stormy  periods, 
especially  when  the  navy  under  Admiral  Mello,  revolted 
in  1893,  and  held  the  harbour  of  Rio  Janeiro  and  some  of 
the  outlying  ports  for  nearly  six  months.  But  an  Amer¬ 
ican  admiral  refused  to  allow  the  revolutionists  to  block¬ 
ade  the  port  to  foreign  commerce,  and  President  Floriano 
controlled  the  army  and  the  government,  so  that  the 
revolution  which  was  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the 
monarchy,  could  make  but  little  headway,  and  was  soon 
crushed  out. 

Since  then  Brazil’s  troubles  have  been  chiefly  financial 
ones,  and  even  these  have  not  been  overwhelming.  The 
republic  which  was  perhaps  at  first  premature,  born  of 
the  ambition  of  army  officers,  is  apparently  thoroughly 
established  in  the  affections  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
people.  Since  its  advent  Brazil  has  awakened  to  a  new 
life.  Commercially  and  intellectually  she  was  never  so 
prosperous  as  to-day.  Whether  her  spiritual  growth  has 
kept  pace  with  her  commercial  expansion  is  perhaps  a 


BRAZIL,  THE  BOUNDLESS 


239 


question,  but  even  in  the  higher  realms  mighty  forces  are 
at  work  in  evangelical  churches  and  schools  for  the  mak¬ 
ing  of  the  new  Brazil. 

Other  chapters  will  tell  of  these  forces  as  well  as  of  the 
new  spirit  of  improvement  which  has  made  of  Rio,  the 
capital,  the  most  beautiful  of  cities,  and  has  infused  a 
fresh  life  into  the  remotest  districts  of  the  great  republic. 


XXIX 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO,  THE  CITY  BEAUTIFUL 


The  Harbour  of  Rio— Compared  with  Sydney  and  Cape  Town— The 
Awakening  of  Rio  de  Janeiro— Making  a  City  Over — The  Avenida 
Central — What  was  Accomplished  in  Two  Years — The  Avenida  by 
Night — Gloria  Hill  to  Botofogo— How  the  City  Made  Money— The 
Great  Port  Works — The  Monroe  Palace. 


FTER  seeing  most  of  the  principal  cities  of  the 


world,  I  had  settled  down  to  the  opinion  that 


JL  Jm.  Buda  Pesth  and  Stockholm  were,  on  the  whole, 
in  my  estimation,  the  most  beautiful  of  modern  capitals, 
but  I  had  not  then  seen  Bio  de  Janeiro,  the  federal  capital 
of  Brazil. 

Of  course  every  one  has  heard  of  the  harbour  of  Bio, 
and  it  is  admitted  to  be  unrivalled.  The  harbour  of 
Sydney  is  the  only  one  that  is  ever  compared  with  it  by 
those  familiar  with  the  world’s  harbours,  and  Sydney, 
though  it  has  its  own  special  and  unrivalled  beauties,  is 
inferior  in  many  respects.  Sydney’s  port  stretches  out 
in  every  direction,  running  for  fifty  miles  inland  like  a 
gigantic  cuttlefish,  sending  its  tentacles  far  up  into  the 
country,  and  affording  innumerable  lovely  bays  and 
charming  vistas,  where  the  land  and  water  meet.  But 
so  does  the  harbour  of  Bio,  though  it  is  not  quite  so  ex¬ 
tensive.  Yet  so  large  is  this  great  tidal  inlet,  that  the 
first  explorers  thought  it  was  a  river,  and,  as  it  was  the 
26th  day  of  January  (some  say  the  1st),  called  it  the 
Biver  of  January,  Bio  de  Janeiro. 

Sydney  has  its  “Heads,”  the  great  flat-topped  hills 
that  stand  guard  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbour,  but  the 
bay  is  so  huge  that  Sydney  Heads  are  scarcely  visible 


240 


RIO  HARBOR  AND  CITY  AS  SEEN  FROM  CORCOYADO.  THE  “SUGAR 
LOAF  ”  IS  THE  CONICAL  PEAK  AT  THE  RIGHT. 


EIO  DE  JAYEIEO 


241 


from  Sydney  City.  But  Eio  de  Janeiro  has  its  Corco- 
vado,  almost  overhanging  the  city,  looking  as  though  it 
would  topple  over  upon  the  housetops,  though  the  mighty 
mountain  has  stood  for  hundreds  of  years  without  a 
tremour,.and  seems  likely  to  stand  for  hundreds  of  years 
to  come. 

Eio,  too,  has  its  “  Sugar  Loaf,”  a  sugar  loaf  more  than 
a  thousand  feet  high  rising  out  of  the  sea,  and  weighing 
billions  of  tons.  The  “Hay  Stack”  would  be  perhaps 
a  more  appropriate  name,  for  it  is  rounded  on  its  top  and 
sides,  and  does  not  taper  to  a  point.  Always  in  the 
sight  of  the  people  of  Eio,  who  look  for  them,  too,  is 
Cavea  and  the  Organ  Mountains,  like  the  pipes  of  some 
gigantic  organ,  and  the  “Finger  of  God,”  all  washed,  as 
it  were,  by  the  salt  sea  that  flows  in  and  out  around 
them,  laving  them  with  its  life-giving  tides  and  singing 
to  them  the  ceaseless  music  of  the  sea.  Cape  Town,  with 
its  Table  Mountain  and  its  Lion’s  Head  dominating  the 
city,  is  the  only  seaport  that  compares  in  respect  of 
mountain  views,  with  Eio,  and  Cape  Town  has  not  the 
splendid  land-locked  harbour  in  which  the  i  1  navies  of 
the  world  can  ride,”  as  has  Eio. 

But  for  all  these  wonders  of  nature,  the  traveller  is 
prepared.  He  has  heard  of  them,  he  has  read  of  them, 
he  has,  perhaps,  dreamed  of  them,  but,  for  the  wonders 
of  the  city  itself,  he  is  not  prepared,  unless  he  is  very 
much  up-to-date,  for  they  have  largely  been  created 
within  the  last  two  years. 

Suddenly  Eio  de  Janeiro  seemed  to  arouse  herself  from 
the  sleep  of  centuries,  and  say  :  “I  will  be  beautiful,  as 
well  as  great,  and  I  will  make  my  streets  and  the  build¬ 
ings  which  line  them,  worthy  of  the  unrivalled  situation 
wdiieh  nature  has  given  me.”  But  this  was  no  easy  un¬ 
dertaking.  It  would  have  staggered  a  Boss  Shepherd, 
or  a  Yankee  magnate  with  tens  of  millions  at  his  dis- 


242  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


posal.  In  an  old  world  city  it  would  have  been  thought 
absolutely  impossible,  but  these  South  American  cities 
have  a  way  of  laughing  at  impossibilities  ( vide  Buenos 
Ayres,  as  well  as  Rio  Janeiro).  They  may  seem  com¬ 
paratively  dormant  for  decades  and  then  suddenly  emerge 
from  their  chrysalis,  like  one  of  their  own  brilliant 
butterflies  that  dazzle  the  fields  in  their  blue  and  gold 
glory. 

As  I  have  said,  Rio  had  unusual  obstacles  to  overcome. 
Her  streets  were  for  the  most  part  narrow,  unwholesome 
thoroughfares  that  held  the  heat  and  excluded  the  air. 
There  was  no  great  avenue  to  serve  as  a  channel  for  the 
lifegiving  winds  from  the  sea,  for  the  streets  ran  in  such 
a  way  as  to  shut  out  the  prevailing  breezes.  These 
streets,  too,  were  wretchedly  paved,  and  slow  mule  cars 
crawled  haltingly  and  stumblingly  along,  stopping  to  pick 
up  a  passenger  wherever  one  offered  himself. 

Most  of  the  houses  were  mediaeval  structures  in  the 
Portuguese  style,  and  there  was  little  to  boast  of  in  the 
way  of  architecture  three  short  years  ago.  Worse  than 
all  else,  yellow  fever  ravaged  the  city  over  and  over 
again,  until  it  got  the  name  of  being  one  of  the  worst 
pest  holes  in  the  world.  Tourists  avoided  it,  merchants 
were  afraid  to  live  in  it.  The  ambassadors  and  other 
diplomats  foregathered  in  Petropolis,  a  beautiful  resort 
on  the  hills  3,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and  nearly  two 
miles  from  Rio.  The  emperor  himself  lived  there  for  a 
large  part  of  the  year,  and  Petropolis  (Peter’s  City)  be¬ 
came  the  real  capital  of  the  country,  rather  than  Rio. 

This  state  of  affairs  continued  down  to  and  into  this 
new  twentieth  century.  In  fact,  until  something  like 
three  years  ago,  when  the  giant  city  yawned,  turned 
over,  shook  herself  and  determined  to  become  “Rio  the 
Beautiful,”  the  finest  city  in  the  continent, — perhaps  in 
the  world. 


THE  “FINGER  OF  GOD”  NEAR  RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO 


243 


I  am  prepared  for  disclaimers  of  the  statement  and  for 
scoffing  remarks  about  the  too  vigorous  imagination  of 
an  impressionable  traveller.  One  who  has  not  visited 
Eio  since  the  beginning  of  1906  will  scarcely  credit  what 
I  relate.  Had  I  seen  the  old  Eio  and  not  the  new,  I 
could  not  myself  have  believed  that  such  changes  were 
possible  in  so  short  a  time.  Photographs  can  do  little 
justice  to  the  new  city,  any  more  than  to  the  magnificent 
harbour  by  which  it  sits. 

The  task  undertaken  and  largely  carried  out  is  not  the 
building  of  a  city  where  no  city  existed  before.  That 
were  a  comparatively  easy  task,  but  the  new  Eio 
necessitated  the  pulling  down  of  the  old  Eio,  and  clearing 
off  the  ruins,  before  another  could  be  built.  The  old 
city  was  compactly  built,  the  streets  were  narrow  and 
cheerless.  Where  the  great  1 1  Avenida  Central”  runs, 
there  was  no  street  at  all,  just  solid  blocks  of  brick  and 
stone  houses,  every  one  of  which  had  to  be  demolished 
and  cleared  away  before  the  street  which  I  will  not 
hesitate  to  pronounce  the  finest  in  the  world,  could  be 
built. 

The  Mayor  of  the  City  was  a  man  of  vision  and  of 
faith.  He  was  not  a  young  man  but  he  had  a  young 
man’s  ideals  and  courage.  He  was  backed  up  by 
councillors  and  citizens  who  shared  his  views, — the 
work  was  begun  and  under  his  successors  it  has  been 
continued,  and,  wonder  of  wonders !  in  less  than  three 
years  largely  accomplished,  or  at  least  so  far  completed 
that  one  can  catch  the  projector’s  vision  of  u  the  city 
Beautiful.” 

Think  for  a  moment  of  the  stupendous  character  of  the 
task  !  In  the  way  of  the  one  Central  Avenue  alone, 
which  the  city  determined  to  construct,  were  five  hun¬ 
dred  and  ninety  houses  and  stores  of  all  descriptions. 
These  must  be  bought  (disappropriated), condemned  and 


244  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


demolished.  Seven  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars 
in  gold  were  paid, for  these  houses.  They  were  taken  by 
the  city  at  their  assessed  valuation,  which  in  some  cases 
proved  to  be  much  less  than  the  rental  value.  But  the 
tax  dodgers  were  taken  at  their  word  by  the  city  fathers, 
and  the  public  wasted  no  sympathy  on  them,  when  they 
only  got  half  the  value  of  their  property. 

At  once  the  destruction  of  the  old  rookeries  began. 
On  the  8th  day  of  March,  1904,  the  first  house  was  de¬ 
molished.  One  year,  eight  months  and  seven  days  later, 
on  the  15th  of  November,  1905,  the  Brazilian  Independ¬ 
ence  Day,  the  Avenida  was  opened  to  the  public.  As  I 
write,  but  one  year  and  a  half  has  elapsed  since  this 
street  was  made  passable,  and  yet  it  can  already  claim, 
as  I  have  said,  to  be  the  most  beautiful  street  in  the 
whole  world,  and  in  the  view  of  an  unprejudiced 
traveller  it  will,  I  think,  justify  its  claim. 

It  is  a  mile  and  an  eighth  long,  over  a  hundred  feet 
wide,  and  lined  on  either  side  with  artistic,  and  often 
truly  imposing  and  even  magnificent  buildings..  To  be 
sure,  some  of  these  buildings  are  rather  florid  and  ornate 
to  suit  the  severest  taste,  but  they  are  all  fresh,  bright, 
and,  most  of  them,  architecturally  beautiful.  “Each 
structure,”  we  are  told,  “must  conform  to  a  plan  in 
which  the  details  of  architecture  and  rules  of  hygiene 
are  preserved.”  The  roadway  is  paved  with  asphalt,  and 
down  its  centre  are  fifty-five  little  ovals  of  flowers  and 
foliage  plants  with  one  Brazil  tree  springing  from  the 
middle  of  the  oval.  (The  Brazil  tree  is  a  typical  and 
beautiful  shade  tree,  from  which  the  country  received  its 
name.)  “From  each  oval,  too,  springs  an  ornamental 
pillar,  bearing  three  arc  lights  ;  at  the  edge  of  the  walks 
in  spaces  alternating  with  the  electric  lights,  are  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  four  pillars  with  gas  jets  of  the  highest  illu¬ 
minating  power,  gas  being  used  with  electricity,  both  to 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO 


245 


increase  the  brilliancy  and  to  avoid  any  danger  from  the 
sndden  breaking  down  of  the  electric  lights.” 

The  sight  of  the  Avenida  by  night  is  as  beautiful  as  by 
day,  and  it  is  almost  as  bright,  for  the  thousands  of  pow¬ 
erful  lights  illumine  not  only  the  roadway,  but  light  up 
the  palatial  stores  and  office  buildings  that  line  this  great 
street  from  one  end  to  the  other.  The  broad  sidewalks 
on  which  ten  people  can  walk  abreast  are  mosaics  made 
of  black  and  white  flints  brought  from  Portugal  for  the 
purpose  and  laid  after  the  Lisbon  style  by  Portuguese 
workmen.  Up  and  down  the  smooth  roadway  automo¬ 
biles  of  the  latest  pattern  tear,  undeterred  by  a  speed 
limit,  tooting  unmelodious  horns  and  emitting  just  as 
noisome  smells  as  if  they  were  in  London  or  New  York. 

But  not  even  the  omnipresent  automobile  can  cloud  for 
more  than  a  moment  the  fair  scene,  or  defile  for  long  the 
pure  air  that  sweeps  through  the  beautiful  Avenida, 
which  is  open  at  both  ends  to  the  sea  and  the  sea  breezes. 
At  the  north  it  opens  on  the  inner  harbour,  with  Petrop- 
olis  and  Nictheroy  on  the  further  side,  while  at  the 
south  it  strikes  the  outer  harbour  with  the  picturesque 
islands  and  gigantic  towering  mountains  of  rock  which 
have  long  made  Rio  famous. 

Through  this  great  central  avenue  blow  the  winds  of 
heaven  by  day  and  by  night,  and  into  it  from  above 
pours  the  sunlight  from  brilliant  and  often  unclouded 
skies,  and  this  mighty  artery  has  had  much  to  do  with 
purifying  the  city,  reducing  the  death-rate,  abolishing 
fever  and  plague  and  making  it  one  of  the  healthiest 
cities  in  the  world. 

But  the  Avenida  Central  is  only,  as  it  were,  the  con¬ 
necting  link  between  equally  beautiful  boulevards.  On 
the  north  side,  an  avenue  used  more  for  business  than 
for  pleasure,  connects  the  Avenida  with  the  new  harbour 
works,  but  on  the  other  side  it  stretches  around  Gloria 


246  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Hill  to  Botofogo,  a  wonderful  crescent  shaped  bay,  and 
then,  on  and  on,  to  the  open  Atlantic  under  the  head  of 
mighty  Corcovado  itself,  which  seems  to  look  down  un¬ 
moved  on  all  these  marvellous  improvements  in  the  city 
over  which  it  has  so  long  kept  guard. 

Along  this  drive  for  much  of  the  way  the  surf  dashes 
up  against  the  fine  stone  battlements  and  on  the  other  side 
are  narrow  parks  filled  with  rare  and  brilliant  flowers 
and  trees  now  in  their  infancy,  but  which  will  make  the 
whole  fifteen  miles  of  the  drive  a  bower  of  loveliness. 
This  drive  for  natural  beauty  and  for  skillful  adornment 
is  not  equalled,  I  believe,  in  all  the  world.  The  Avenida 
Central  and  its  boulevard  extensions  on  either  side  do  not 
by  any  means  make  the  sum  total  of  the  new  Rio.  Seven 
and  three-fourth  miles  of  streets  have  been  or  are  being 
widened  and  transformed  from  narrow  dirty  lanes  into 
handsome  business  avenues,  and  the  city  has  ventured 
upon  a  loan  of  twenty  millions  of  dollars  to  accomplish 
it.  Eleven  hundred  houses  will  be  demolished  and  in 
some  cases  the  streets  will  not  only  be  widened  but 
run  through  the  old  blocks,  as  was  the  Central 
Avenue. 

Strange  to  say,  out  of  all  this  destruction  and  recon¬ 
struction,  the  city  has  made  money,  for  the  land  on  the 
new  streets  is  worth  far  more  than  the  old  buildings 
which  were  condemned  and  demolished,  and  it  has  been 
eagerly  bought  by  merchants  who  desire  to  have  their  es¬ 
tablishments  on  the  best  streets.  But  of  course  the  sale 
of  the  land  which  the  city  disappropriated  has  not  paid 
all  the  enormous  bills  contracted  in  building,  in  three 
short  years,  the  City  Beautiful,  and  the  government  has 
gone  into  debt  to  the  extent  of  fifty  millions  of  dollars 
for  the  new  city. 

It  is  worth  it  all,  the  traveller  will  declare,  and  so  far 
the  city  seems  to  have  had  no  trouble  in  interesting  the 


THE  MOST  BEAUTIFUL  STREET  IN  THE  WORLD. 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO 


247 


Rothschilds  and  other  capitalists  in  her  plans  and  bor¬ 
rowing  money  at  reasonable  rates. 

The  “port  works  ”  is  another  of  the  gigantic  and  vastly 
important  improvements  which  is  being  carried  on  at  the 
same  time  with  the  building  of  the  new  streets  of  Rio. 
At  this  writing  (June,  1907),  one  has  to  get  ashore  as 
best  he  can  from  the  great  liners.  It  is  an  unseemly 
scramble  with  extortionate  charges  by  the  boatmen,  and 
exasperating  delays,  and  an  extraordinary  thoroughness  of 
search  on  the  part  of  the  custom-house  officers.  In  a 
few  months  the  “port  works”  will  be  completed,  and  a 
solid  stone  wall  front,  with  piers,  quays,  warehouses,  and 
all  modern  electrical  appliances  for  handling  freight,  will 
extend  a  distance  of  two  and  one-fifth  miles  up  the  inner 
harbour.  Then  the  travellers’  tribulations  on  landing  at 
Rio  will  be  largely  things  of  the  past,  and  he  will  step 
from  the  gangplank  on  to  terra  firma  and  obtain  with  his 
first  step  on  shore  an  impression  of  substantial  utility,  as 
well  as  of  the  great  natural  beauty  of  the  harbour. 

I  have  written  with  ardour,  I  am  aware,  of  this 
noble  city,  and  have  not  spared  the  superlatives  because 
they  are  all  deserved.  I  can  hardly  expect  those  who 
have  not  visited  Rio  within  three  years  to  share  my  en¬ 
thusiasm,  scarcely  to  believe  my  story,  for  much  of  the 
city  is  so  new,  so  fresh,  so  unstained  by  the  hand  of  time, 
that  even  the  inhabitants  themselves  are  scarcely  able  to 
realize  what  has  been  accomplished. 

The  “Monroe  Palace,”  so  called,  which  stands  at  one 
end  of  the  Avenida,  is  as  bright  and  sparkling  as  when 
it  stood  in  the  World’s  Fair  at  St.  Louis,  for  there  is  no 
smoke  or  grimy  fog  to  disfigure  and  besmirch  the  purity 
of  the  buildings.  Here  the  Pan  American  Congress  held 
its  meetings  during  Secretary  Root’s  important  visit,  and 
it  is  a  typical  building,  typical  of  the  beauty  and  strength 
of  new  Brazil,  typical,  too,  when  we  consider  its  name 


248  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


and  the  use  to  which  it  was  put,  of  the  new  and  brotherly 
aspirations  which  are  stirring  in  the  hearts  of  Brazilians 
towards  their  great  neighbour  in  the  north,  for  nowhere 
else  in  South  America  are  North  Americans  more  popu¬ 
lar  and  welcome. 

This  chapter,  to  be  fully  rounded  out,  seems  to  suggest 
a  question.  If  Rio  de  Janeiro  can  accomplish  such  won¬ 
derful  things  in  two  short  years,  why  cannot  New  York, 
Chicago,  London  and  Glasgow,  with  their  greater  wealth, 
beautify  and  ennoble  their  municipalities  in  like 
manner  ? 

Who  will  rub  Aladdin’s  lamp  for  them,  and  evolve 
other  Cities  Beautiful  ? 


XXX 


THE  WORLD’S  COFFEE  CUP  AND  HOW  IT  IS  FILLED 

Brazil,  One-fifteenth  of  Habitable  Globe — The  Brazilian  Tonic — Too  Large 
Doses  of  the  Stimulant — Controlling  the  Price  of  Coffee — Jahu  in  the 
Coffee  District — A  Brazilian  Troly — A  Great  Fazenda — How  a  Coffee 
Tree  Looks — Preparing  the  Berries  for  Market — How  Many  Cups 
Have  the  Brazilian  Plantations  Filled  ? — Beckoned  in  Trillions — 
Breakfast  on  the  Fazenda— How  the  Coffee  is  Made. 

“They  have  in  Turkey  a  drink  called  coffee.  .  .  .  The  drink 

comforteth  the  brain  and  heart  and  helpeth  digestion.” — Bacon. 

THE  world’s  coffee  cup  is  filled  by  Brazil.  There 
is  no  doubt  about  it.  Three-fourths  of  all  the 
coffee  that  the  world  and  his  wife  complacently 
sip  at  the  breakfast  table,  Mocha,  Java,  Rio,  whichever 
you  prefer,  is  grown  on  the  red  soil  of  the  uplands  of 
Brazil. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  Brazil  can  and  does  pro¬ 
duce  every  kind  of  coffee  grown  in  the  world.  Xo  pains 
or  money  have  been  spared  to  import  seed  from  Arabia, 
Java  and  Bourbon,  of  the  best  varieties  known  there.  It 
is  further  stated  that  1 1  the  conditions  of  soil  and  climate 
and  the  vast  extent  of  country,  the  rich  lands  peculiarly 
adapted  to  coffee,  the  immunity  from  disease,  and  the 
abundance  of  labour,  make  it  almost  certain  that  she  will 
practically  monopolize  the  coffee  production  of  the  world 
so  long  as  these  conditions  continue.”  1 
When  we  remember  the  further  facts  that  Brazil  is  one- 
fifteenth  of  the  habitable  globe,  one-fifth  of  both  A  mericas 
and  three-sevenths  of  South  America,  we  see  what  a  huge 

1  The  Brazilian  Bulletin. 

249 


250  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


coffee  plantation  there  is  from  which  the  world’s  coffee 
cup  can  be  filled. 

To  be  sure,  the  whole  of  Brazil  is  not  adapted  to  the 
production  of  coffee,  but  millions  and  tens  of  millions  of 
her  acres  are  suited  to  the  redolent  berry,  and  the  great 
problem  which  confronts  Brazil  is  not  how  to  augment 
but  how  to  reduce  or  at  least  keep  stationary  the  coffee 
crop  so  that  the  price  may  not  fall  to  a  ruinously  low 
figure. 

Whether  or  not  coffee  is  a  health-giving  tonic  to  the 
individual  as  most  people  claim,  in  spite  of  the  assevera¬ 
tions  of  the  enterprising  people  of  Battle  Creek  and  the 
counter-claims  of  Postum,  it  is  certain  that  it  has  proved 
a  powerful  tonic  to  the  prosperity  of  Brazil,  for,  owing 
to  her  wealth  in  coffee,  she  has  rebuilt  her  cities,  im¬ 
proved  their  drainage,  banished  yellow  fever,  and  taken 
on  within  the  last  dozen  years  a  new  lease  of  national  and 
industrial  life. 

Santos,  for  instance,  the  great  coffee  port  from  which 
nearly  three-fourths  of  the  coffee  of  the  world  is  shipped, 
is  no  longer  a  pest- hole  dreaded  of  all  navigators,  but  a 
clean,  healthy  town,  with  splendid  stone  docks  that  put 
to  shame  the  flimsier  structures  of  New  York  and  Boston. 

The  only  question  about  coffee  as  a  national  tonic  is 
whether  like  all  stimulants  it  may  not  be  overdone,  and 
a  reaction  set  in  which  may  for  a  time  disorder  the  na¬ 
tional  heart.  Indeed,  this  reaction  from  an  overstimu¬ 
lant  has  already  set  in,  and  Brazil  is  feeling  serious  ef¬ 
fects  from  it.  The  state  of  Sao  Paulo  has  forbidden  the 
planting  of  any  more  coffee  trees  for  five  years,  under 
penalty  of  a  serious  fine.  The  first  five  years  of  this  pro¬ 
hibition  are  nearly  spent,  and  the  legislature  will  un¬ 
doubtedly  renew  the  prohibition  for  another  half  decade. 
But  Sa5  Paulo,  though  the  chief  coffee  producing  state, 
is  only  one  of  several  where  the  berry  can  be  grown,  and 


THE  WORLD’S  COFFEE  CUP 


251 


it  is  expected  that  the  next  congress  will  apply  the  same 
law  to  all  Brazil. 

In  the  meantime  the  government  has  developed  a  plan 
for  buying  up  all  the  surplus  coffee  and  holding  it  so 
long  as  is  necessary  to  prevent  a  drop  in  the  price.  Al¬ 
ready  it  is  said  that  there  are  five  million  bags  on  hand, 
and  the  end  is  not  in  sight.  Indeed,  the  attempt  to  cor¬ 
ner  the  coffee  market  of  the  world  may  produce  serious 
demoralization  of  the  national  finances. 

These  facts  are  sufficient  to  show  the  importance  of  the 
coffee  cup  in  the  economics  of  Brazil,  and  add  interest  to 
a  visit  to  a  coffee  plantation  in  the  heart  of  Sao  Paulo, 
the  most  progressive  state  in  the  Brazilian  union. 

My  friend,  Colonel  Feraz,  of  Jahu,  had  invited  me  and 
a  dozen  mutual  friends  to  visit  his  fazenda  or  coffee  farm, 
a  few  miles  from  the  town.  Jahu,  you  must  know,  is  in 
the  heart  of  the.  great  state  of  Sao  Paulo  and  in  the  heart 
of  the  coffee  district  as  well.  The  soil  is  the  colour 
of  brick  dust,  and  the  roads  and  sidewalks  and  the 
houses,  where  the  water  in  the  frequent  rains  has  splashed 
up  on  them,  are  all  red.  Even  one’s  linen,  his  face  and 
his  hair,  take  on  a  reddish  hue  after  a  short  ride  or  walk 
on  a  dusty  day. 

The  town  itself  is  a  compact,  well  built  place  of  some 
fourteen  thousand  inhabitants,  whose  sole  business  is 
coffee.  They  not  only  drink  coffee  several  times  a  day, 
but  sell  coffee,  raise  coffee,  talk  coffee,  and,  for  what  I 
know,  dream  coffee.  All  about  the  town  the  open  country 
slopes  upward,  and  is  covered  with  coffee  trees,  to  the 
right,  to  the  left,  to  the  north,  to  the  south,  everywhere 
is  coffee.  Our  friend’s  fazenda  is  some  five  miles  out  of 
town,  and  bright  and  early  one  May  morning  half  a  dozen 
trolys  drew  up  at  the  door  of  the  little  hotel,  to  take  us 
all  out  to  the  fazenda.  Now  a  Brazilian  troly  is  not  an 
American  trolley,  but  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a 


252  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


buckboard  drawn  by  mules, — a  vehicle  that  answers  ad¬ 
mirably  for  the  rough  country  roads  of  Brazil. 

The  Brazilian  mule,  too,  is  an  animal  to  be  admired, 
as  well  as  respected,  for  the  strength  of  his  heels.  He  is 
a  sleek,  clean,  handsome,  strongly  built  fellow,  and  when 
attached  to  one  of  the  handsome  equipages  of  Eio,  with 
silver-mounted  harness,  he  surpasses  his  prouder  ancestor, 
the  horse.  In  the  country  the  mules,  though  not  so  finely 
accoutred,  are  just  as  handsome  and  willing,  and  they 
took  us  out  over  the  hills  and  valleys  to  the  fazenda  of 
their  master  in  very  creditable  time. 

When  within  about  a  mile  of  the  house,  as  we  were 
driving  through  an  avenue  of  coffee  trees,  our  host  mod¬ 
estly  remarked,  “  These  are  my  trees,”  and  we  found 
that  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  up  hill  and  down  dale  his 
trees  extended. 

“  How  many  trees  have  you  !  ”  we  asked. 

And  he  almost  took  our  breath  away  by  replying, 
“Four  hundred  and  thirty  thousand.”  He  went  on  to 
explain  that  these  trees  were  in  the  original  estate  of  his 
father,  which  had  been  inherited  by  three  or  four  broth¬ 
ers,  but  that  they  worked  the  estate  in  common,  though 
his  individual  share  would  be  only  a  hundred  thousand 
odd  trees. 

The  full  grown  tree  is  about  twelve  feet  high,  of  bushy 
and  rather  dense  growth.  The  leaves  are  a  beautiful, 
glossy  dark  green,  in  shape  like  those  of  our  edible  chest¬ 
nut,  and  the  coffee  berries  grow  on  the  twigs  and  small 
branches  and  close  to  the  wood.  First  they  are  green, 
then  turn  to  a  deep  red  or  yellow,  and,  finally,  when 
fully  ripe,  become  almost  black.  In  May  they  are  at 
their  handsomest,  for  the  red  berries  contrast  beautifully 
with  the  glossy  green  leaves,  and  glow  like  rubies  in 
their  dark  setting.  The  red  berries  look  for  all  the 
world  like  Cape  Cod  cranberries,  but  taste  very  unlike 


DRYING  COFFEE. 


THE  WOELD’S  COFFEE  CEP 


253 


them,  for  a  sweetish  pnlp  under  the  outer  husk  envelops 
the  hard  berry  of  commerce. 

When  the  berries  are  ripe  they  are  stripped  off  by 
hand  and  fall  to  the  ground  beneath  the  tree,  where 
they  are  gathered  up  by  another  set  of  workmen  and 
carried  to  the  factory,  where  they  are  washed  and 
thoroughly  dried,  and  then  put  through  a  machine 
which  breaks  off  the  hull.  This  being  lighter  is  blown 
out  by  a  strong  current  of  air  to  the  back  of  the  factory, 
while  the  heavier  kernel  falls  into  its  appropriate  bin. 
From  this  it  is  again  lifted  and  by  ingenious  machinery 
passed  over  an  iron  sieve  with  holes  of  various  sizes,  and 
thus  automatically  sorts  itself ;  the  small  round  berries, 
which  are  the  most  valuable,  dropping  by  themselves 
into  their  appropriate  receptacle. 

Then  the  winnowed,  hulled  and  sorted  coffee  is  put 
into  bags  each  of  which  weighs  sixty  kilos,  or  132 
pounds,  and  is  ready  for  storage  or  for  export  as  the 
case  may  be. 

Up  to  a  certain  point  coffee  improves  with  age,  so  that 
when  the  crop  is  particularly  heavy,  as  it  is  every  four 
or  five  years,  the  berries  can  be  stored  to  advantage,  to 
await  the  leaner  years  which  are  sure  to  follow  a  bumper 
crop. 

After  we  had  been  introduced  to  the  family  at  the 
fazenda,  our  host  took  us  over  his  plantation,  only  a 
fraction  of  it,  of  course,  for  days  would  not  have  sufficed 
to  drive  through  the  miles  and  miles  of  rows  of  trees  that 
belonged  to  him  and  his  brothers.  All  the  rows  were 
straight,  clean,  well -cultivated  and  flourishing.  Scarcely 
a  dead  tree  could  be  seen  or  a  dead  branch  on  any  tree. 
When  a  tree  dies  out  for  any  reason,  another  is  planted 
(the  law  allows  old  plantations  to  be  thus  renewed)  and 
for  a  year  or  two  is  protected  from  summer’s  sun  and  the 
winter’s  frost  by  a  slight  covering.  At  four  years  of  age 


254  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


the  trees  begin  to  bear,  and  continue  in  bearing  for  fifty 
years  and  in  many  instances  even  longer. 

While  we  were  driving  through  the  plantation,  our 
host  gave  us  some  facts  about  the  coffee  industry,  which 
were  startling  in  their  size.  In  the  state  of  Sao  Paulo 
seven  hundred  million  coffee  trees  are  found,  and  twenty- 
five  million  in  the  Jahu  district  alone.  In  the  year  1906, 
which  was  an  exceptionally  good  year,  the  trees  of  Sao 
Paulo  averaged  nearly  four  pounds  of  coffee  to  the  tree. 
In  1907,  however,  fortunately  for  the  price  of  coffee,  the 
average  yield  was  not  half  as  great. 

In  all  Brazil  the  production  of  coffee  in  1906  was  esti¬ 
mated  at  twenty  millions  of  bags  of  132  pounds  each,  or 
two  hundred  and  sixty  four  billion  pounds.  Reckoning 
fifty  cups  of  coffee  to  the  pound,  if  my  arithmetic  is  not 
at  fault  in  such  enormous  figures,  the  Brazilian  crop  of  a 
single  year  would  fill  the  world’s  coffee  cup  thirteen 
trillion,  two  hundred  billion  times.  Of  course  the  small 
after  dinner  cups,  which  are  usually  used  in  Brazil,  could 
be  filled  three  times  as  often,  but  these  figures  involved 
stagger  computation,  and  I  will  leave  it  to  my  reader  to 
work  out  the  larger  problem  of  the  smaller  cup. 

To  return  to  the  fazenda,  after  visiting  different  parts 
of  the  plantation,  and  seeing  his  orange  groves  and  the 
houses  of  his  labourers,  our  kind  host  brought  us  back 
for  breakfast  to  the  chief  residence  on  the  fazenda,  where 
his  brothers  and  his  wife  lived.  This  substantial  meal  in 
Brazil  usually  comes  at  eleven  or  twelve  o’clock,  and  on 
Colonel  Feraz’  fazenda  it  was  certainly  an  elaborate 
function.  Beginning  with  soup,  roast  chicken,  roast 
beef,  and  roast  mutton,  followed  in  quick  succession, 
while  the  piece  de  resistance  was  a  whole  sucking  pig 
without  which  no  such  state  breakfast  would  be  deemed 
complete.  Fruits  and  sweets  followed ;  the  sweets  ex¬ 
ceedingly  sweet.  One  variety  called  in  Portuguese, 


THE  WORLD’S  COFFEE  CUP 


255 


“maiden’s  kisses”  being  so  very  sweet  as  to  be  cloying 
to  the  taste.  The  cynical  bachelor  would  doubtless  say 
that  this  was  why  it  received  its  name. 

Of  course  the  feast  wound  up  with  coffee,  and  such 
coffee !  One  must  visit  a  fazenda  in  Brazil  to  find  a  per¬ 
fect  cup  of  coffee  From  the  tree  to  the  mill,  to  the 
coffee-pot,  to  the  table,  with  no  chance  for  the  admixture 
of  chicory  or  acorns,  with  a  Brazilian  housewife  to 
make  it,— then  one  gets  the  aromatic  berry  in  its 
perfection. 

In  a  Brazilian  home  the  coffee  is  roasted  and  ground 
fresh  each  time  it  is  made.  It  is  not  boiled,  but  is  re¬ 
duced  to  a  powder  and  packed  in  a  conical  woollen  bag. 
Hot  water  is  then  poured  through  it  twice,  so  that  it  is  a 
percolation,  not  a  decoction,  that  is  served. 

The  host  and  hostess  waited  on  the  guests  assiduously 
and  never  sat  down  to  share  the  viands  with  them,  for 
this  is  Brazilian  hospitality. 

A  coffee  fazenda  is  not  usually  a  place  of  great  luxury 
or  style.  These  things  are  reserved  for  the  town  houses, 
and,  except  in  the  large  cities,  living  is  on  a  simple  and 
unostentatious  style.  At  Colonel  Feraz’  fazenda,  the 
piano,  on  which  the  Brazilian  young  ladies  play  ex¬ 
cellently,  was  the  chief  article  of  furniture  in  the  living- 
room,  shared  by  a  comfortable  hammock  and  a  number 
of  chairs,  which  were  taken  into  the  dining-room  when 
breakfast  was  served. 

All  day  long  the  sturdy  mules,  three  abreast,  kept 
bringing  great  cart-loads  of  coffee  berries  to  the  mill,  and 
other  carts  were  equally  busy  carrying  away  the  bags  of 
hulled  and  sorted  berries.  Many  thousands  of  cups  of 
coffee  would  be  made  from  that  day’s  work  at  this  one 
mill,  and  practically  the  mill  is  kept  busy  the  year 
around. 

After  the  breakfast,  our  generous  hosts  brought  out  a 


256  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


great  two -bushel  bag  of  delicious  orauges,  from  which 
every  one  was  invited  to  eat  all  he  desired  and  then  fill 
his  pockets. 

The  westering  sun  at  last  reminded  us  that  it  was  time 
to  return  to  Jahu.  The  day  had  been  so  full  of  pleasure 
and  instruction  and  we  felt  that  no  one’s  education  was 
complete  if  he  had  not  spent  at  least  one  day  on  a 
Brazilian  fazenda. 


XXXI 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  IN  BRAZIL1 

Some  Early  Morning  Starts— Seen  From  the  Car  Window — Maine  and 
Brazil — The  Fine  City  of  Sao  Paulo — The  Beginnings  of  Christian 
Endeavour  in  Brazil — A  Wet  Picnic — The  Brazilian  Hug — A  Coven- 
tion  in  the  Coffee  District — Hospitality  of  the  Daily  Papers — The 
Generosity  of  Brazilian  Officials — “  Until  a  Little  While.” 

THIS  chapter  might  just  as  truthfully  be  headed 
three  thousand  miles  iu  Brazil,  for  adding  the 
two  thousand  miles  of  coast  line,  from  the  edge 
of  Uruguay  to  Pernambuco,  to  the  thousand  miles  we 
have  travelled  overland  from  and  to  the  capital  by  rail, 
a  good  three  thousand  has  been  covered.  However, 
since  we  have  gone  ashore  at  but  two  or  three  ports  on 
the  coast,  I  will  confine  myself  to  our  travel  by  land,  in 
order  to  reach  the  four  Christian  Endeavour  conventions 
at  Sao  Paulo,  Jahu,  Eio  Claro  and  Campinas.  These 
were  in  addition  to  the  national  and  South  American 
conventions  held  at  Eio  de  Janeiro,  which  were  meetings 
of  remarkable  power  and  influence. 

These  busy  days  of  travel  and  convention-going  fre¬ 
quently  began  long  before  daylight  and  often  ended  at 
about  midnight.  I  do  not  suppose  that  all  the  trains  in 

1  Though  this  whole  journey  to  South  America  was  in  the  interests 
of  the  Christian  Endeavour  movement,  the  author  has  not  included  in 
this  volume  details  of  the  many  Christian  Endeavour  meetings  held. 
An  account  of  the  rapid  progress  of  this  cause  in  South  America  will  be 
found  in  other  publications.  He  has  given  in  this  connection,  how¬ 
ever,  the  story  of  one  Christian  Endeavour  trip,  since  it  describes 
certain  phases  of  South  American  life,  which  should  not  be  omitted 
from  such  a  volume. 


257 


258  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


Brazil  start  at  5:30  in  the  morning,  but  it  seemed  to  me 
that  all  I  needed  to  take  were  scheduled  for  that  hour, 
which  often  involved  getting  up  and  routing  up  our 
patient  hosts  at  4  A.  M.,  two  hours  before  daylight  in 
this  southern  clime. 

After  the  inevitable  coffee  with  which  every  Brazilian, 
from  the  loftiest  to  the  lowliest,  begins  the  day,  we 
would  start  on  our  pilgrimage,  which  sometimes  did  not 
end  until  sundown. 

Travelling  in  the  settled  parts  of  the  United  States  of 
Brazil,  is  very  much  like  travelling  in  the  United  States 
of  America.  The  cars  are  on  the  North  American  pat¬ 
tern  and  some  of  them  were  built  at  Wilmington,  Dela¬ 
ware.  Many  of  the  engines  are  from  the  Baldwin  loco¬ 
motive  works  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  assiduous  con¬ 
ductor  punches  the  tickets  in  the  same  way  but  a  little 
oftener  and  a  trifle  more  politely  than  our  own  knights  of 
the  railway. 

As  I  looked  out  of  the  car  window,  too,  I  could  often 
imagine  myself  on  my  native  North  American  heath. 
Some  parts  of  the  country  look  like  Maine  in  the  neigh¬ 
bourhood  of  Moosehead  Lake  ;  great  reaches  of  forest 
with  blue  mountains  in  the  dim  distance.  But  when  we 
came  nearer  to  the  forests  I  could  see  that  we  were  in 
sunny  Brazil,  where  it  is  summer  nine  months  of  the 
year  and  early  autumn  the  other  three.  Here  were  palm 
trees  and  breadfruit  trees  with  their  great  glossy  leaves, 
and  cotton  trees  bursting  into  bloom,  while  other  trees 
were  a  perfect  mass  of  bright  red  blossoms  without  a  leaf 
showing.  I  was  often  reminded  of  Moses’  burning  bush 
as  the  train  flashed  by  the  flaming  forest,  every  blossom  a 
tongue  of  fire. 

And  the  coffee  trees, — you  see  nothing  like  them  in 
Maine  or  California  or  Florida,  for  the  world’s  coffee  comes 
from  Brazil.  Mocha  and  Java  coffee  as  well  as  Bio,  the 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  IN  BEAZIL 


259 


seed  having  been  imported  from  these  countries.  Acres 
and  acres,  miles  and  miles,  leagues  and  leagues  of  coffee. 

But  these  things  are  all  by  the  way,  literally,  and  the 
way  led  to  the  four  Christian  Endeavour  conventions  of 
which  I  have  spoken.  The  first  one  was  at  Sao  Paulo, 
the  capital  of  the  state  of  the  same  name,  and  some  three 
hundred  miles  from  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Sao  Paulo  is  con¬ 
sidered  the  most  progressive  and  modern  state  in  Brazil, 
and  the  city  of  Sao  Paulo  is  a  worthy  capital  of  such  a 
state.  It  is  about  as  large  as  its  namesake,  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota,  has  well -paved  streets,  lined  with  substantial 
buildings,  and  a  splendid  electric  street-car  service  of 
American  installation. 

To  many  of  my  readers  the  city  is  interesting  because 
it  has  long  been  the  chief  centre  of  Christian  Endeavour  in 
South  America.  Here  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fenn  laboured  when 
the  former  was  professor  in  McKenzie  College,  and  from 
them  the  society  gained  its  first  great  impetus,  though  a  so¬ 
ciety  had  previously  been  formed  in  Botucatei  by  Miss  E.  C. 
Hough.  In  Sao  Paulo  lived  the  indefatigable  secretary, 
Dr.  Eleizer  dos  Sanctos  Saraiva,  and  the  first  president 
of  the  Brazilian  Union,  Rev.  Erasmo  Braga,  and  other 
leaders  of  the  movement.  Though  the  national  head¬ 
quarters  has  now  been  removed  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Sao 
Paulo  will  long  maintain  its  prominence  in  Christian  En¬ 
deavour  circles. 

The  meetings  here  were  large  and  helpful.  The  attend¬ 
ance  certainly  was  all  that  could  be  desired,  and  u  stand¬ 
ing  room  only,  and  not  much  of  that’7  might  have  been 
the  sign  at  all  the  evening  meetings. 

The  picnic  afternoon  spent  in  a  pleasant  park  near  Sao 
Paulo  was  somewhat  interfered  with  by  the  rain,  but 
Brazilian  Endeavourers  are  not  to  be  daunted  by  a  few 
showers,  and  they  turned  out  in  large  numbers  and 
seemed  to  enjoy  a  wetting  as  well  as  an  outing. 


260  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Long  before  daylight  on  the  morning  after  the  last  late 
meeting  at  Sao  Paulo,  we  started  for  Jahu,  three  hundred 
miles  away  in  the  interior,  in  the  richest  coffee  region  of 
the  world.  This,  too,  was  an  all-day’s  journey,  but  it 
was  far  from  monotonous,  for  the  scenery  was  fine,  and 
the  new  trees  and  fruits  and  flowers  that  we  saw  by  the 
way  added  considerably  to  our  botanical  lore.  Some¬ 
times  brilliant  birds  would  flash  through  the  dark  trees, 
and,  occasionally,  a  flock  of  wild  ostriches  would  lift  their 
wings  and  scud  from  the  approaching  railway  train. 

At  many  stations  companies  of  Endeavourers  would  be 
waiting  to  give  us  the  Brazilian  hug  and  pat  on  the  back, 
and  to  wish  us  all  manner  of  blessings  in  their  soft, 
melodious  Portuguese.  Some  of  these  Endeavourers  went 
on  with  us  to  Jahu,  so  that  when  we  arrived  there 
towards  evening,  the  convention  was  at  once  organized 
and  was  soon  in  full  swing. 

I  was  much  surprised  to  see  over  the  door  of  the 
Presbyterian  church  the  familiar  Christian  Endeavour 
monogram  in  electric  lights,  red  and  white,  and  for  a 
moment  had  to  rub  my  eyes  to  see  whether  I  was  in 
North  America  or  South  America. 

Here  is  a  land  where  half  a  century  ago  Protestantism 
was  unknown,  and  where  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  its 
missionaries  were  persecuted  almost  unto  death  ;  a  point 
far  back  from  the  centres  of  population,  where  now  a 
Christian  Endeavour  convention  could  be  carried  on  with 
as  much  enthusiasm  and  dignity  as  in  New  York  or  York¬ 
shire.  Here  was  a  district  convention  in  the  heart  of 
Brazil  which  attracted  as  much  attention,  perhaps  more, 
than  any  similar  gathering  would  do  in  Great  Britain  or 
the  United  States. 

The  two  daily  papers  gave  large  space  to  it : — one  of 
them  occupied  almost  all  of  its  front  page  with  the 
programme.  The  leading  political  leaders  of  both 


A  THOUSAND  MILES  IN  BEAZIL 


261 


parties,  though  Eoman  Catholics,  attended  nearly  all  the 
services,  and  the  mayor  of  the  city  called  upon  us  and 
expressed  his  great  interest  in  the  meetings. 

It  was  a  genuine  Christian  Endeavour  convention  too. 
None  of  our  principles  or  leading  features  were  ignored 
or  forgotten.  The  prayer-meeting,  the  committees,  the 
pledge,  the  interdenominational  fellowship,  were  all  made 
prominent,  and  our  friends  in  Jahii  evidently  knew  the 
spirit  as  well  as  the  forms  of  Christian  Endeavour. 

One  day  after  the  convention  was  over  was  spent  on  a 
u  Fazenda,”  or  coffee  farm,  where  our  host  was  the 
owner  of  430,000  coffee  trees  all  in  bearing,  but  that  day 
was  so  rich  in  new  experiences  that  it  needs  a  whole 
chapter  to  do  it  justice. 

The  meetings  at  Eio  Claro  and  at  Campinas  were  for 
only  one  evening  each,  but  large  audiences  and  earnest 
Endeavourers  characterized  them  both,  and  they  were 
graced  by  the  presence  of  the  officials  of  the  city  who 
thus  showed  not  only  their  tolerance  but  their  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  Protestantism, — a  remarkable  thing  in  a  strongly 
Catholic  country  like  Brazil. 

All  the  way  along,  from  the  first  moment  of  our  arrival 
until  the  hour  of  embarkation,  the  officials  have  been 
most  kind.  A  special  car  the  government  provided  free 
of  charge  to  take  us  and  some  forty  Endeavourers  to 
Sao  Paulo,  and  special  launches  met  our  steamer,  pro¬ 
vided  without  expense  to  our  friends  by  the  custom¬ 
house  authorities.  The  same  courtesy  was  extended  on 
our  return  to  the  steamer,  and  all  the  Endeavourers  who 
wished  to  go,  accompanied  us  to  the  ship  that  was  to 
carry  us  homeward. 

On  our  return  to  Eio  we  found  that  the  Oravia 
would  be  four  days  late  in  sailing,  and  our  friends  took 
advantage  of  it  by  arranging  four  extra  meetings  in  the 
city  and  suburbs,  and  in  Nictheroy  across  the  bay, — the 


262  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


capital  of  the  state  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  A  farewell  meet¬ 
ing  in  The  Central  Mission  Hall  on  the  evening  before 
we  sailed  completed  the  series  of  meetings  which  to  me 
will  be  memorable  as  long  as  I  live,  and  which  my 
friends  assure  me  have  done  much  for  the  cause  of  Chris¬ 
tian  Endeavour  in  Brazil. 

The  only  fault  I  can  find  with  them  is  that  they  had 
too  much  of  the  President  of  the  World’s  Union  in  them, 
for  when  I  came  to  reckon  it  up  I  find  that  he  had  spoken 
no  less  than  forty-four  times  in  twenty-four  days,  and  he 
was  quite  exhausted  when  he  sailed  for  home. 

I  think  it  was  Nero  to  whom  the  atrocious  sentiment 
is  attributed,  that  he  wished  all  Rome  had  one  neck  that 
he  might  chop  it  off  with  one  blow.  I  could  wish  that 
all  Brazilian  friends  for  a  moment  at  least  had  one  hand 
that  I  might  take  it  in  a  fraternal  grasp  and  tell  them 
how  much  I  appreciate  their  hearty  greetings,  their  oft- 
expressed  good  wishes,  their  unwearied  attentions,  their 
affectionate  farewells.  To  my  interpreters  I  owe  an 
especial  debt  of  gratitude,  especially  to  Mr.  Myron  Clark, 
secretary  of  the  flourishing  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Rio  de  Janeiro 
who  interpreted  for  me  at  more  than  thirty  meetings. 

The  Brazilians  have  an  expression  which  I  heard  a 
thousand  times,  which  being  literally  translated  means : 
“  Until  a  little  while.’7  It  may  be  many  years  before  I 
return  to  Brazil,  if  ever,  but  in  the  years  of  eternity  it 
will  be  only  “  until  a  little  while 77  that  we  meet  again. 
Then  “Ate  Loga,77  dear  friends,  “ate  loga77 — “until 
a  little  while.77 


XXXII 


VENEZUELA,  THE  TURBULENT  REPUBLIC  OF 
THE  NORTH 

An  Accessible  Frontier — Large  Resources — Terrible  Misrule — The  Dis¬ 
covery  of  Venezuela — Little  Venice— Early  Years  of  Oppression — 
Venezuela’s  Declaration  of  Independence — The  Career  of  the  Greatest 
Venezuelan— Blanco  and  Castro — Caracas,  the  Capital — The  Outlook 
for  Venezuela. 

VENEZUELA,  of  all  countries  in  South  America, 
is  the  country  for  which  God  has  done  the  most 
and  man  the  least.  In  fact  it  is  the  country  in 
which  man  seems  to  have  done  his  best  to  thwart  the 
good  designs  of  Providence.  Almost  any  other  country, 
subjected  to  the  systematic  pillage  by  which  Venezuela 
has  been  plundered,  would  long  ago  have  been  reduced 
to  a  primeval  wilderness  or  succumbed  to  its  enemies  from 
without.  That  Venezuela  survives  at  all  as  an  inde¬ 
pendent  republic  is  proof  of  her  inherent  resources  and 
recuperative  powers. 

Unlike  the  republics  of  the  west  coast  she  has  an  easily 
accessible  frontier.  In  Peru  and  Chile,  for  thousands  of 
miles,  barren,  inhospitable  mountains  forbid  the  traveller 
and  merchant  to  penetrate  the  interior.  Along  the 
Venezuelan  coast  the  mountain  ramparts  are  low,  and  a 
smiling  and  abundant  vegetation  invites  the  explorer  to 
penetrate  beyond  them.  Instead  of  having  to  scale 
passes  three  miles  high  in  order  to  reach  the  promised 
land  beyond,  as  on  the  west  coast,  the  passes  of  the 
Venezuelan  coast  mountains  are  scarcely  half  a  mile  high. 

263 


264  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


In  Amazonian  Brazil  the  impenetrable  jungle  and  the 
malarial  swamps  are  as  great  an  obstacle  to  the  explorer 
as  the  barren  mountains  of  Peru,  but  along  the  Venezuelan 
shore  there  is  little  of  this  difficulty,  and  the  traveller’s 
way  is  made  comparatively  easy  by  nature.  When  one 
gets  beyond  the  low  barriers,  he  finds  great  healthy  up¬ 
land  prairies  of  rich  soil,  furnishing  splendid  pasturage 
for  tens  of  millions  of  cattle  and  sheep.  Every  tropical 
plant  can  be  grown  here,  and  coffee  and  cacapmalone, 
had  they  been  cultivated  to  their  limit,  might  long  ago 
have  made  Venezuela  one  of  the  rich  nations  of  the 
world. 

But  in  spite  of  these  natural  advantages,  what  do  we 
see  ?  A  country  ravaged  by  tyrants  from  without,  and 
wracked  by  internal  dissensions,  a  country  taxed  to 
death ;  a  country  of  rankly  and  frankly  dishonest 
officials,  who  have  systematically  laid  up  millions  for 
themselves  while  they  have  robbed  the  people ;  a  country 
which  in  all  its  long  list  of  rulers  can  scarcely  boast  of 
one  honest  administration. 

In  many  things  Venezuela  was  the  first  of  South  Amer¬ 
ican  countries, — the  first  to  be  discovered,  the  first  to  de¬ 
clare  itself  an  independent  republic,  the  first  to  win 
victories  on  any  considerable  scale  against  Spain. 

On  his  third  voyage,  in  1498,  Columbus  discovered  the 
coast  of  Venezuela  south  of  the  Windward  Islands.  A 
year  later  Alonso  de  Ojeda  followed  the  coast  along  for 
four  hundred  miles,  without  finding  any  spot  where  he 
could  penetrate  the  mountain  chain  which  follows  the 
shore,  though  it  really  presents  few  difficulties  compared 
with  the  mountains  of  the  Pacific  coast.  But  when  he 
got  into  the  great  Gulf  of  Maracaibo,  he  saw  signs  of 
habitation  and  found  that  the  Indians  lived  in  villages 
where  the  houses  were  built  on  piles  driven  into  the  shal¬ 
low  water  near  the  shore.  This  naturally  suggested  to 


VENEZUELA 


265 


him  the  Italian  city  of  the  Lagoons,  and  he  named  the 
place  Venezuela,  or  Little  Venice,  a  name  that  afterwards 
was  given  to  the  whole  shore  for  hundreds  of  miles,  and 
that  attached  itself  to  that  great  republic  (great  terri¬ 
torially)  that  occupies  the  northeastern  corner  of  South 
America. 

No  settlements  were  made  in  Venezuela  for  thirty 
years  after  Columbus  first  saw  the  shore,  and  it  was 
nearly  twenty  years  more  before  the  interior  was  pene¬ 
trated,  and  any  permament  settlement  was  made  beyond 
the  barrier  of  the  mountains.  Then  followed  nearly  two 
hundred  years  of  cruel  exploitation  by  the  Spaniards, 
who  tried  to  squeeze  dry  the  poor  Venezuelan  orange 
and  then  throw  it  aside  as  worthless. 

All  that  they  wanted  was  gold  and  silver,  and  when 
the  placer  mines  were  exhausted,  they  had  little  further 
use  for  the  great  province,  larger  and  richer  though  it 
was  than  Spain  itself.  Commerce  was  forbidden,  as  it 
was  indeed  by  this  short-sighted  government  on  all  the 
South  American  coast,  and  “the  only  goods  legally  im¬ 
ported  had  to  be  procured  from  the  Cadiz  monopoly,  and 
were  sent  to  the  Isthmus  and  there  transhipped  into 
coasting  vessels,  paying  enormous  freight  charges,  profits 
and  duties.  Tobacco  and  salt  were  monopolized  by  gov¬ 
ernment  concessionaires,  and  not  a  chicken  could  be  sold 
in  the  markets  without  paying  an  exorbitant  tax. 

1 1  Education  was  completely  neglected.  It  was  not  until 
1696  that  a  priests’  school  was  established  in  Caracas, 
and  when  the  City  of  Merida  asked  a  similar  boon  it  was 
denied,  because  1  His  Catholic  Majesty  did  not  deem  it 
wise  that  education  should  become  general  in  America.’ 
So  the  Creoles  (the  native  people  of  Spanish  blood)  grew 
up  nearly  as  ignorant  as  the  Indians  around  them,  al¬ 
though  retaining  all  the  fierce  pride  of  their  Spanish 
descent,  acknowledging  no  man  as  superior,  and  retain- 


266  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


ing  very  dim  sentiments  of  loyalty  to  the  mother  coun¬ 
try.”  1 

The  first  movement  for  liberty  in  Venezuela  began  in 
1806  and  was  an  abortive  one,  though  it  was  destined  to 
have  large  results.  It  is  interesting  to  North  Americans 
because  its  leader,  Francisco  Miranda,  a  native  of  Caracas, 
had  fought  under  Washington,  and  his  expedition  was 
made  up  of  American  filibusters  who  sailed  from  New 
York  in  three  ships  and  attempted  to  land  on  Venezuelan 
shores. 

They  were  beaten,  however,  and  ten  “ Yankee”  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  expedition  were  condemned  and  shot  in  Puerto 
Cabello  where  a  monument  has  recently  been  erected  in 
their  honour  ;  a  scarcely  deserved  honour,  since  it  is  not 
plain  that  they  were  actuated  by  any  high  motives  or  de¬ 
sires  to  promote  human  rights.  Their  leader,  Miranda, 
escaped  to  Jamaica  and  lived  to  play  an  important  part 
in  the  future  history  of  Venezuela.  He  afterwards  ap¬ 
pears  as  a  leader  of  the  patriot  forces  when  the  real  revo¬ 
lution  that  freed  Venezuela  actually  began. 

This  was  in  1811,  when,  on  the  5th  of  July,  almost  ex¬ 
actly  the  thirty-fifth  anniversary  of  American  inde¬ 
pendence,  Venezuela  adopted  a  similar  declaration  of 
independence,  proclaiming  its  seven  provinces  free  and 
independent  states.  This  independence  was  not  destined 
to  be  achieved  without  a  bloody  struggle,  however.  Over 
and  over  again  the  patriot  forces  were  defeated,  and  it 
looked  as  though  the  Spanish  power  had  finally  tri¬ 
umphed.  Twelve  years  later,  on  the  8th  of  November, 
1823,  the  last  Spanish  stronghold  was  taken,  and  Vene¬ 
zuela’s  long  fight  for  freedom  was  secured. 

Though  Miranda  himself  did  not  accomplish  great 
things  for  the  independence  of  Venezuela,  one  of  his 
young  lieutenants  was  destined  to  imprint  his  name  in- 
1  Dawson’s  “South  Araerioan  Republics.” 


I 


VENEZUELA  261 

delibly  on  the  history  of  South  America.  This  was  nc 
other  than  Simon  Bolivar,  all  in  all,  in  spite  of  his  moral 
defects,  the  greatest  character  that  South  America  has 
produced,  unless  it  be  San  Martin,  the  hero  of  Argen¬ 
tina,  who  so  far  surpassed  Bolivar  in  self-effacing 
patriotism. 

The  story  of  Bolivar’ s  triumphs  has  already  been  told 
in  other  chapters,  for  though  he  was  a  native  of  Vene¬ 
zuela,  the  scene  of  his  victories  was  more  in  Colombia 
and  even  in  Peru  and  Bolivia  than  in  his  native  land. 
In  fact,  he  met  with  his  worst  defeats  in  Venezuela,  not 
only  from  the  Spanish  enemy  but  from  the  jealousy  and 
distrust  of  his  own  countrymen,  and  he  died,  discouraged 
and  heart-broken,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-seven.  His 
hopeless  wail  upon  his  resignation  of  the  presidency  and 
afterwards  upon  his  death-bed,  seems  a  prophecy  of 
the  evil  years  which  have  come  to  Venezuela  since  his 
death.  “Independence  is  the  only  benefit  we  have 
achieved  and  that  has  been  at  the  cost  of  all  others,”  he 
wrote.  “Our  constitutions  are  books,  our  laws  paper, 
our  elections  combats,  and  life  itself  a  torment.  We 
shall  arrive  at  such  a  state  that  no  foreign  nation  will 
condescend  to  conquer  us,  and  we  shall  be  governed  by 
petty  tyrants.” 

If  Bolivar  had  known  of  the  administration  of  Blanco 
and  Castro  he  could  not  have  prophesied  more  accurately. 
Since  the  achievement  of  freedom  from  Spain,  revolution 
has  followed  revolution,  the  contest  often  being  between 
the  states  for  supreme  power  and  a  weak  central  govern¬ 
ment.  As  in  other  South  American  states  the  so-called 
“Unitarians”  and  the  “Federalists”  have  nominally 
fought  for  power,  though  often  the  fight  has  degenerated 
into  a  mere  personal  squabble  for  the  spoils  of  office, 
without  a  shred  of  principle  to  justify  the  contest,  while 
the  poor,  patient  peasantry  have  been  slaughtered  like 


268  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


sheep  on  either  side,  not  knowing  or  caring  for  what  they 
fought. 

The  only  strong  man  who  emerged  from  the  welter  of 
the  conflict  for  many  years  was  Guzman  Blanco.  He 
was  as  bad  as  he  was  strong,  was  constantly  feathering 
his  own  nest  and  plucking  the  feathers  from  the  breasts 
of  his  people,  but  he  at  least  gave  Venezuela  a  compara¬ 
tively  stable  government  for  nearly  twenty  years,  in  the 
’70’s  and  780?s  ;  reformed  the  currency,  rebuilt  and  greatly 
beautified  Caracas,  the  capital,  and  secured  to  Venezuela 
the  only  long  period  for  peaceful  recuperation  she  has 
ever  enjoyed. 

Another  strong  man  of  like  character  came  to  the  front 
in  1899  in  the  person  of  the  present  President  Castro, 
whose  administration  has  aroused  the  execration  of  the 
civilized  world,  and  yet  who  seems  to  be  the  only  man 
in  Venezuela  who  can  control  the  turbulent  forces 
sufficiently  to  carry  on  even  the  semblance  of  a  govern¬ 
ment.  Castro  first  came  into  notice  by  starting  an  in¬ 
surrection  in  the  western  state  of  Los  Andes.  His  army 
grew  as  he  marched  to  Caracas,  until  at  last  he  was  able 
to  capture  the  capital  and  establish  himself  in  supreme 
power. 

The  comparatively  recent  blockade  of  Venezuelan 
ports  in  1902,  and  the  destruction  of  the  puny  Venezuelan 
navy  by  the  joint  fleets  of  England,  Germany  and  Italy, 
will  be  remembered  by  my  readers.  This  was  to  insure 
the  long  delayed  payment  of  the  just  claims  of  citizens 
of  these  powers.  Serious  international  complications 
were  likely  to  arise,  and  the  United  States  persuaded 
Venezuela  and  the  Powers  to  submit  these  claims  to 
arbitration,  a  matter  which  was  one  of  the  first  to  occupy 
the  attention  of  the  Hague  Tribunal. 

President  Castro  was  elected  by  congress  (it  may  be 
more  truthful  to  say,  by  the  bayonets  of  his  soldiers)  to 


VENEZUELA 


269 


serve  for  six  years  from  1902,  and  what  may  still  happen 
before  his  term  of  office  expires,  or  afterwards,  no 
prophet  would  be  bold  enough  to  predict.  It  would 
seem,  however,  that  nothing  worse  for  poor  Venezuela 
than  what  she  has  endured,  could  be  in  store  for  her. 

In  many  respects  Venezuela  shares  the  characteristics 
of  other  South  American  countries.  Her  people  are 
even  more  cosmopolitan  than  in  most  of  the  other  coun¬ 
tries  of  the  southern  continent,  and  every  shade  of  colour 
is  seen,  and  every  language  is  heard  in  the  streets  of 
Caracas,  though  of  course  Spanish  is  the  dominant 
tongue. 

The  city  of  Caracas,  as  seen  from  a  distance,  is  a 
beautiful  one,  and  certainly  occupies  a  unique  situation. 
Built  on  the  old  bed  of  a  prehistoric  lake,  it  is  surrounded 
by  mountains  nine  thousand  feet  high,  while  the  approach 
to  it  is  by  a  wonderful  mountain  railway  over  a  pass 
nearly  a  mile  above  the  sea  level.  On  nearer  approach 
the  city  does  not  make  good  the  anticipation  of  the  dis¬ 
tant  view,  for  one  sees  that  the  houses  and  public  build¬ 
ings  are,  many  of  them,  shabby  in  appearance,  and  the 
streets  are  poorly  paved,  and  full  of  pitfalls  for  horses 
and  foot-passengers.  The  city  contains  a  fine  cathedral, 
a  university  and  a  Pantheon  of  national  heroes,  while 
the  great  statue  of  Venezuela’s  chief  hero,  Bolivar, 
which  stands  in  the  principal  plaza,  is  indeed  a  work  of 
art.  Some  of  the  houses,  too,  though  looking  shabby 
outside,  are  beautiful  within,  with  lovely  patios  where 
flowers  bloom  and  birds  sing,  and  cool  water  from  artistic 
fountains  tinkles  down  upon  tesselated  pavements. 

The  common  people  of  course  have  no  such  luxuries, 
and  live  usually  in  very  squalid  style,  with  dirt  floors 
tinder  their  feet  and  dirt  on  everything  that  their  hands 
touch. 

The  liquor  saloons  which  abound  everywhere  sport 


270  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


such  signs  as  “The  Fountain  of  Hope,”  “God’s  Good 
Grace,”  and,  judging  from  the  number  of  shrines  and 
crosses  and  pictures  of  the  saints  and  the  Virgin  that  are 
displayed,  the  people  would  seem  to  be  very  religious. 
But  it  is  an  exceedingly  superficial  religion,  which  seems 
to  have  little  influence  on  life  and  conduct,  and  nowhere 
are  Protestant  churches,  schools  and  other  institutions 
more  needed  than  in  Venezuela.  It  is  gratifying  to 
know  that,  though  missionary  work  is  yet  in  its  infancy 
in  this  republic,  a  good  beginning  has  been  made. 

The  outlook  for  Venezuela  is  not  of  the  brightest  by 
any  means,  but  we  can  only  hope  that  she  is  in  one  of  the 
earlier  and  darker  stages  of  the  struggle  for  liberty  and 
a  stable  government,  through  which  all  of  the  South 
American  republics  have  passed  and  out  of  which  some 
of  them  have  already  emerged  into  the  sunlight  of  pros¬ 
perity  and  an  assured  and  well-defined  freedom. 

May  this  be  the  happy  fate  of  Venezuela  and  may  her 
future  be  as  peaceful  as  her  past  has  been  turbulent ! 


XXXIII 


THE  THREE  GUIANAS 

The  Only  Monarchical  Section  of  South  America— The  Republican  Idea — 
Extent  and  Population  of  the  Guianas — A  Checkered  History — Co¬ 
lumbus  and  Sir  "Walter  Raleigh— The  British  and  the  Dutch— A 
Disastrous  Exchange  for  Holland — Brave  Moravian  Missionaries — 
French  Guiana— Sugar-cane  Behind  the  Dikes— Uneventful  Peace. 

THE  only  territory  in  South  America  which  does 
not  belong  to  one  of  the  eleven  self-governing 
republics,  is  the  comparatively  small  strip  on 
the  northeastern  coast,  which  is  divided  between  Great 
Britain,  Holland  and  France,  and  is  known  as  British, 
Dutch  and  French  Guiana,  and  the  bleak,  wind-swept 
Falkland  islands  off  the  coast  of  Argentina. 

While  nearly  one-half  of  Xorth  America  is  under  the 
dominion  of  a  European  crown,  South  America  is  almost 
entirely  republican  in  its  government, — the  only  conti¬ 
nent  of  which  this  can  be  said.  It  is  to  be  feared  that 
many  parts  of  South  America  have  not  commended  the 
republican  form  of  government  to  the  rest  of  the  world, 
and  several  of  the  republics  have  doubtless  served  as 
“  dreadful  examples 17  of  popular  misrule,  which  have 
joyfully  been  pointed  to  by  monarchists  in  all  parts  of 
the  world. 

But  if  South  America  has  not  added  much  lustre  to  the 
republican  idea,  this  idea  has  certainly  taken  deep  root 
on  her  soil,  and  there  is  almost  no  likelihood  that  a 
monarchy  will  ever  gain  a  further  foothold  in  the  con¬ 
tinent.  Even  without  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  force  this 
would  be  impossible  since  the  people  seem  thoroughly 

271 


272  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


wedded  to  the  republican  principles,  faulty  as  they  are 
in  practice  in  many  of  the  states. 

Instead  of  three  Guianas,  we  might  properly  speak  of 
five,  for  the  territory  to  which  an  old  Indian  tribe  gave 
this  name  really  embraces  part  of  Venezuela  and  part  of 
Brazil  as  well  as  the  country  that  belongs  to  the  English, 
Dutch  and  French.  It  is  really  a  vast  island,  bounded 
by  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  Amazon,  Rio  Negro,  Cassi- 
quiare  and  Orinoco  Rivers.  Though  the  water  boun¬ 
daries  are  narrow  in  some  places,  yet  the  similitude  of  an 
island  is  carried  out  on  a  great  scale,  when  we  remember 
that  this  mass  of  high  plateaus  is  separated  from  the 
other  mountainous  portions  of  South  America  by  vast 
river  valleys,  which  practically  cut  it  off  and  isolate  it 
more  completely  than  would  the  waters  of  the  ocean. 

The  Guianas  in  this  more  extended  sense,  embrace 
eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  equal  to  more  than 
a  quarter  part  of  the  continental  territory  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  rivers  which  wash  their  shores,  like  the 
Amazon  and  the  Orinoco,  are  among  the  largest  in  the 
world.  The  population  of  the  Guianas,  on  account  of 
the  hot  and  unhealthful  climate  near  the  shore  and  along 
the  river  valleys,  is  comparatively  small.  But  a  little 
over  half  a  million  people  inhabit  this  vast  territory. 
Every  man,  woman  and  child  could  possess  nearly  two 
square  miles,  if  the  country  was  evenly  parcelled  out 
among  all  the  people.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
more  than  half  of  the  half  million  are  gathered  in  a 
small  part  of  British  Guiana,  which  is  by  far  the  most 
important  of  them  all.  The  population  is  largely  com¬ 
posed  of  black  people,  and  formerly  great  colonies  of 
negroes  who  had  fled  from  their  masters  settled  in  the 
interior  of  the  Guianas  and  became  a  terror  to  all  other 
settlers. 

The  history  of  this  strip  of  South  American  co^st  is 


THE  THEEE  GUIAHAS 


273 


not  without  an  interest  of  its  own.  It  was  one  of  the  very 
first  parts  of  the  Hew  World  seen  by  a  white  man.  Only 
seven  years  after  his  first  memorable  voyage,  Columbus 
sighted  the  coast  of  Guiana,  but  he  apparently  did  noth¬ 
ing  more  than  look  upon  it  from  the  ship’s  deck,  and  in 
this  he  showed  his  wisdom,  for  thousands  of  future  and 
more  rash  explorers  paid  for  their  temerity  with  their 
lives,  and  found  their  graves  in  Guiana. 

In  1595  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  tried  to  penetrate  into  the 
interior,  thinking  that  the  new  El  Dorado  was  there. 
But  he  found  nothing  but  malaria  and  disease,  and 
rightly  concluded  that  it  was  the  last  place  in  which  to 
look  for  an  El  Dorado.  The  Dutch  were  the  first  actual 
settlers,  and  in  1581  they  formed  a  feeble  colony  upon 
the  part  of  the  coast  which  is  now  British  Guiana.  It  is 
a  singular  fact  that  the  Dutch  first  settled  British  Guiana, 
and  the  British  first  settled  Dutch  Guiana.  All  these 
little  colonies  have  had  their  ups  and  downs,  and  have 
been  under  more  than  one  flag. 

In  1596  the  Dutch  were  driven  out  by  the  Spaniards ; 
exactly  two  hundred  years  later  the  colonies  were  taken 
by  the  British.  They  were  given  up  in  1802,  retaken  by 
the  British  in  1803,  and  held  by  them  ever  since.  This, 
as  I  have  said,  is  by  far  the  best  part  of  Guiana.  Its 
population  is  probably  over  300,000,  of  whom  over  100,- 
000  are  East  Indians,  who  make  their  way  wherever  the 
British  flag  flies,  and  seem  to  thrive  as  well  in  South 
Africa  or  South  America,  as  they  do  in  their  own  land. 
Another  100, 000  of  the  people  or  more  are  negroes,  and 
there  are  many  of  mixed  breeds. 

That  suffrage  is  not  enjoyed  to  any  great  extent  by  the 
people  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  a  few  years  ago  there 
were  only  two  thousand  voters  among  the  three  hundred 
thousand  people. 

The  capital  of  British  Guiana  is  Georgetown,  and  is  a 


274  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


coinparately  modern  and  thriving  city,  with  a  very  con¬ 
siderable  trade.  The  fact  that  two  million  dollars’  worth 
of  gold  are  mined  in  British  Guiana  make  it  a  settlement 
of  no  little  importance,  while  its  trade  in  sugar-cane, 
coffee,  cocoa,  etc.,  is  very  considerable. 

We  all  remember  the  war-cloud  that  suddenly  arose 
on  the  American  horizon  a  few  years  ago  when  President 
Cleveland’s  peremptory  note  demanded  that  the  British 
claims  to  Venezuelan  territory  in  the  Guianas  be  at  once 
adjusted  on  a  reasonable  basis.  Probably  no  act  of 
Cleveland’s  administration  or  of  any  recent  president  has 
been  more  loudly  condemned  or  more  warmly  applauded 
both  at  home  and  abroad  than  this.  It  is  perhaps  as  yet 
too  soon  to  decide  upon  its  wisdom,  but  it  is  certain  that 
Great  Britain  preferred  arbitration  to  the  risk  of  war 
over  a  comparatively  worthless  and  inaccessible  bit  of 
territory,  and  she  yielded  gracefully  to  President  Cleve¬ 
land’s  demands. 

Venezuela  has  since  proved  to  be  so  untrustworthy  in 
her  negotiations  with  other  countries  and  the  bombastic 
president,  Castro,  has  so  thoroughly  acted  out  the  part  of 
the  naughty  boy  among  the  South  American  presidents, 
that  many  people  of  the  United  States  would  have  been 
glad  if  President  Cleveland  had  let  Great  Britain  have 
her  own  way  unhampered  by  any  threats  of  enforcement 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  feeling  that  the  Venezuelan 
Guianas  would  be  much  better  off  under  the  Union  Jack 
than  under  the  unstable  banner  of  Venezuela. 

Dutch  Guiana,  as  I  have  said,  was  first  settled  by  the 
English,  and  received  the  name  of  Surrey-ham.  This 
was  afterwards  corrupted  into  Surinam,  by  which  name 
it  is  often  known.  The  most  interesting  item  in  its  his¬ 
tory,  to  North  Americans,  is  the  fact  that  in  1667  by  the 
Peace  of  Breda,  it  was  given  to  the  British  in  exchange 
for  the  New  Netherlands,  otherwise  New  York.  It  could 


THE  THEEE  GUIANAS 


275 


hardly  be  said  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events  that  this 
was  the  fair  exchange  which  is  no  robbery.  The  New 
Netherlands  now  has  a  population  of  nearly  eight  mil¬ 
lions  ;  poor  old  Dutch  Guiana  has  less  than  a  hundred 
thousand  people.  The  New  Netherlands  contain  the 
second  city  of  the  world.  Paramaribo,  the  capital  of 
British  Guiana,  has  hardly  as  many  thousands  as  New 
York  has  millions.  The  New  Netherlands  has  become 
the  empire  state  of  the  New  World.  The  territory  for 
which  it  was  exchanged  has  hardly  shared  to  any  extent 
the  prosperity  of  modern  nations. 

But  though  Holland  obtained  this  part  of  Guiana  in 
1667,  at  such  an  enormous  price,  as  it  afterwards  proved, 
she  was  not  allowed  to  hold  it  in  peace  and  quiet.  For 
it  was  captured  by  the  British  in  1779,  given  back  to  the 
Dutch  in  1802,  held  by  the  British  once  more  for  twelve 
years,  from  1804  to  1816,  and  finally  restored  to  the  Dutch 
by  the  Peace  of  Paris  in  the  latter  year. 

Here  the  Moravian  missionaries  established  one  of  their 
early  missions.  Long  before  modern  missions  became 
popular  in  the  other  Protestant  churches,  the  brave 
Moravians  sought  out  the  most  difficult  and  disease- 
wasted  corners  of  the  world.  This  was  one  of  them,  and 
here  in  1739  they  established  themselves  and  sought  to 
bring  the  natives  to  a  knowledge  of  God.  In  the  previous 
year  they  began  their  work  in  British  Guiana,  and  to-day 
they  number  more  than  eight  thousand  communicants, 
and  as  many  more  adherents  in  these  colonies,  with  thou¬ 
sands  of  pupils  in  their  schools.  In  fact,  at  the  beginning 
of  this  century,  there  were  twice  as  many  communicants 
in  the  Moravian  church  as  in  any  one  missionary  society 
in  South  America. 

French  Guiana  is  the  poorest  and  most  hopeless  foreign 
possession  in  South  America.  It  is  frequently  called 
Cayenne  from  the  name  of  its  capital,  and  the  name  sug- 


276  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


gests  the  hot  country  which  seems  to  fully  live  up  to  its 
title.  Among  the  few  thousands  of  inhabitants  there  were, 
a  short  time  ago,  nearly  five  thousand  ticket- of-leave  con¬ 
victs,  since,  for  a  long  time,  France  sent  her  criminals  to 
these  shores.  But  the  climate  was  so  bad  for  white  col¬ 
onists  that  a  generation  ago  she  began  to  send  them  else¬ 
where  $  and  the  inhabitants  of  French  Guiana  are  now  al¬ 
most  entirely  Indians  or  negroes.  Like  the  other  Guianas, 
the  French  colony  has  suffered  much  from  war  as  well  as 
disease.  It  has  been  ravaged  and  abandoned  by  the  Eng¬ 
lish  and  Dutch  alike,  and  was  not  finally  restored  to 
France  by  the  British  until  a  century  ago.  In  1763 
France  made  a  desperate  effort  to  colonize  this  country, 
in  order  that  she  might  gain  a  foothold  in  South  America. 
In  that  year  she  sent  out  no  less  than  fifteen  thousand 
colonists,  but  in  two  years  thirteen  thousand  of  them  had 
found  graves  in  the  new  land,  and  only  two  thousand  dis¬ 
couraged  and  hopeless  men  and  women  were  left. 

In  some  respects  the  three  Guianas  have  an  important 
place  to  fill  among  the  minor  colonies  of  the  world.  No 
land  is  better  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  sugar-cane 
than  that  along  the  shores  of  these  countries,  and  the 
Dutch,  with  characteristic  courage  and  determination, 
having  learned  how  to  do  it  in  their  own  low-land,  built 
dikes  and  walls,  and  recovered  large  sections  of  land  from 
the  sea,  land  which  is  of  apparently  inexhaustible  fertility 
in  the  production  of  sugar-cane. 

These  colonies  may  well  congratulate  themselves  that 
for  a  hundred  years,  at  least,  they  have  lived  in  peace. 
While  the  countries  all  around  them  have  been  distracted 
by  foreign  wars  and  drenched  in  the  blood  of  their  own 
citizens,  the  Guianas  have  had  little  to  break  the  serene 
monotony  of  their  existence.  If  they  have  not  progressed 
very  rapidly,  they  certainly  have  not  retrograded  ;  if  they 
have  not  made  any  startling  progress,  they  at  least  de- 


THE  THREE  GUIAXAS 


277 


serve  the  encomium  of  the  happy  nations  that  have  made 
no  history.  Doubtless  as  other  and  more  attractive  por¬ 
tions  of  the  world  are  filled  with  adventurous  settlers, 
these  colonies  will  attract  their  quota,  and  will  have  a 
more  prosperous,  though  perhaps  a  less  exciting  history, 
than  in  the  early  years  of  their  settlement  by  European 
powers. 


XXXIV 


WITH  THE  PRESIDENTS  OF  FOUR  REPUBLICS 

Doctor  Amador— His  Appearance  and  His  Family — The  Senate  Chamber 
of  Peru— An  Ingenious  Way  of  Balloting— President  Pardo— The 
Palace  in  Lima — Section  4  of  the  Constitution — The  Constitution  and 
the  Temper  of  the  People  of  Peru — President  Montt  of  Chile — A 
Democratic  Executive— President  Alcorta  of  Argentina — Favourable 
Impressions. 

IT  is  always  interesting  to  meet  the  rulers  of  a  people  ; 
for  they  are  very  sure,  whatever  their  character  or 
abilities,  to  be  typical  men,  typical  of  their  times 
and  country,  typical  at  least  of  the  party  which  brought 
them  into  power.  On  this  account  I  have  taken  pains  in 
some  of  the  republics  I  have  visited,  to  have  an  interview 
with  their  chief  executives,  a  courtesy  which  has  been 
readily  granted. 

The  president  of  the  Eepublic  of  Panama  is  His  Excel¬ 
lency,  Doctor  Amador.  He  is  a  physician  by  profession 
and  a  politician  only  by  accident,  as  it  were ;  for  the 
recent  coup  d'etat  of  Panama,  in  shaking  off  her  entang¬ 
ling  alliance  with  Colombia  in  order  that  the  canal  might 
be  dug,  resulted  in  Dr.  Amador’s  election  to  be  the  first 
president  of  the  republic,  an  honour  of  which  he  probably 
never  dreamed  five  years  ago. 

He  was  not  a  young  man,  and  very  likely  he  would 
have  preferred  to  remain  in  his  chosen  profession  ;  but  he 
responded  to  the  call  of  his  country  and  has  made  a  safe 
and  patriotic,  though  not  a  brilliant,  president.  He  lives 
in  a  modest  house  near  the  centre  of  the  city  of  Panama, 
a  house  whose  hallway  is  bright  with  the  plants  and 
flowers  which  he  loves.  A  new  palace  is  being  built, 
which  will  quite  eclipse  his  present  residence. 

278 


THE  PRESIDENTS  OF  FOUR  REPUBLICS  279 


He  received  me  most  graciously,  chatted  in  excellent 
English  about  his  own  country  and  mine,  and  the  great 
canal,  in  which  he  has  the  utmost  faith,  as  well  he  may 
have.  He  has  a  piercing  black  eye,  an  eager,  almost  ap¬ 
pealing  look,  and  came  to  the  door  to  meet  me  with  out¬ 
stretched  hand  in  a  cordial  and  democratic  manner. 

He  belongs  to  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  families  of 
Panama,  and  in  his  hands,  so  far  as  he  can  guide  its  des¬ 
tinies,  I  believe  the  interests  of  the  small  but  important 
republic  of  the  Isthmus  are  safe, 

Peru  is  a  republic  of  a  different  type,  larger,  richer, 
more  populous  in  the  proportion  of  ten  to  one,  perhaps  ; 
a  country  with  a  great  and  troubled  history,  but  let  us 
hope  with  a  greater  and  more  peaceful  future, 

A  call  on  her  chief  magistrate  was  most  interesting. 
To  see  the  successor  of  Atahuallpa,  Huascar,  and  Pizarro, 
and  a  long  line  of  rulers,  Incas,  and  Spaniards  and 
creoles  ;  rulers  worthy  and  unworthy  ;  rulers  progressive, 
reactionary,  mercenary,  and  patriotic,  is  of  itself  inter¬ 
esting  ;  and  to  find  one  of  the  best  of  the  long  line  in  the 
chair  of  state  to-day  is  still  more  gratifying. 

Before  going  to  the  palace  I  had  the  pleasure  of  visit¬ 
ing  the  Senate  chamber  of  Peru,  where  the  upper  house 
of  the  republic  holds  its  deliberations.  It  is  a  beautiful 
room  iu  the  old  Hall  of  the  Inquisition,  where,  in  the 
bloody  days  of  old,  edicts  went  forth  condemning  to  death 
and  torture  Jews,  Protestants,  and  all  other  heretics  who 
did  not  accept  the  Catholic  faith.  An  attempt  has  been 
made  to  change  the  name  of  this  great  building  and  the 
plaza  on  which  it  faces,  but  the  unsavory  old  name  still 
sticks  to  it  The  Senate  chamber  itself  is  a  beautiful 
room  with  a  remarkable  ceiling  of  wood,  elaborately 
carved,  that  also  dates  back  to  the  Inquisition. 

A  most  ingenious  way  for  balloting  is  provided  in  the 
Peruvian  Senate,  and  one  which  I  never  saw  in  any  other 


280  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


deliberative  assembly.  Behind  the  speaker’s  chair  are 
fifty-six  round  glass  disks  about  as  large  as  the  palm  of 
one’s  hand,  each  one  corresponding  to  some  senator’s 
chair.  When  a  vote  is  to  be  taken,  each  senator  presses 
one  of  two  buttons  under  his  desk,  and  an  electric  light 
is  switched  on  to  one  of  the  disks.  A  white  light  indi¬ 
cates  a  yea  vote ;  a  red  light,  a  nay  vote.  In  a  moment 
the  vote  is  taken  ;  in  another  moment  it  can  be  counted 
and  recorded. 

As  it  is  difficult  to  find  out  or  to  remember  which  disks 
correspond  to  the  respective  seats,  the  ballot  is  practically 
a  secret  one  and  no  senator  need  be  intimidated  by  hav¬ 
ing  his  vote  known  by  his  constituents.  Such  a  method 
has  its  advantages,  and  its  very  obvious  disadvantages, 
for  it  is  difficult  to  put  a  slippery  senator  on  record  with 
such  a  method  of  voting. 

The  only  large  picture  in  the  Senate  chamber  that  I  re¬ 
member  is  that  of  Don  Manuel  Pardo,  Peru’s  first  civilian 
president,  who  came  into  power  in  the  early  seventies. 
His  predecessors  had  been  military  dictators,  many  of 
them  bent  on  personal  aggrandizement  and  autocratic 
power. 

President  Pardo  was  constitutionally  elected,  but  his 
administration  fell  on  troublous  times.  1  1  His  four  years,  ’ 7 
says  the  historian,  “  were  one  continual  struggle  against 
impending  bankruptcy.  Though  he  brought  some  order 
into  public  accounts,  it  was  only  by  all  sorts  of  expedients 
that  he  managed  to  keep  up  interest  payments.  .  .  . 

His  intellectual  and  moral  force  united  about  him  the 
educated  and  property-holding  classes  in  a  party  which 
survives  to  this  day,  and  he  left  the  reputation  of  having 
been  the  best  president  who  ever  ruled  Peru.”1 

The  son  of  this  able  and  upright  statesman  is  the 

1T.  C.  Dawson  in  “  The  South  American  Republics.” 


THE  PRESIDENTS  OF  FOUR  REPUBLICS  281 


present  president  of  the  republic,  and  he  it  was  whom  I 
went  to  see  immediately  after  visiting  the  Senate  house 
where  his  honoured  father’s  portrait  ornaments  the  wall. 
The  president  lives  in  a  beautiful  private  residence  of  his 
own  on  one  of  the  chief  streets  of  Lima,  but  he  received 
me  at  the  “  Palace,”  his  official  residence,  which  fronts 
on  the  fine  plaza  of  Lima,  on  another  side  of  which  is  the 
great  Cathedral  where  Pizarro’s  bones  lie. 

The  palace  is  an  enormous  building  erected  by  Pizarro 
on  this  very  spot,  though  doubtless  much  altered  since 
his  day.  It  is  long  and  low,  and  is  guarded  at  every  en¬ 
trance  by  a  formidable  array  of  soldiers. 

The  interview  was  arranged  for  me  by  Hon.  Richard 
R.  Neill,  the  charge  d’affaires,  who  was  the  acting  minister 
of  the  United  States  in  the  absence  of  the  new  minister 
who  had  not  then  arrived.  It  would  be  difficult  to  find 
one  better  suited  to  the  position  he  holds  than  is  Mr. 
Neill ;  genial,  popular  with  all  classes,  unwearying  in  his 
kindness  to  friends  and  visitors.  While  ministers  have 
come  and  ministers  have  gone,  Mr.  Neill  has  remained  in 
Lima  for  a  score  of  years  or  more,  the  one  indispensable 
man  in  the  legation. 

First,  Mr.  Neill  took  me  to  see  the  secretary  of  foreign 
affairs,  Dr.  Y.  Polo,  a  youngish  man  of  much  ability, 
who  speaks  excellent  English,  and  converses  with  great 
intelligence  about  things  Peruvian  and  American. 

After  a  few  minutes’  conversation  with  him  we  were 
turned  over  to  the  president’s  aide-de-camp,  a  gorgeously 
dressed  individual  of  huge  proportions,  who  conducted 
us  through  one  handsome  and  richly  upholstered  salon 
after  another  until  we  came  to  the  president’s  reception- 
room.  On  the  wall  of  this  room,  as  also  in  one  or  two 
other  rooms  of  the  palace,  I  noticed  an  oil  painting  of 
President  Castilla,  that  rugged  old  military  president  of 
Peru,  who  kept  his  hands  on  the  reins  of  power  for  nearly 


282  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


twenty  years,  and  who,  by  rough  and  ready  means  suited 
to  the  times,  brought  order  out  of  chaos,  an  order  which 
unfortunately  relapsed  into  chaos  again  ere  long. 

After  we  had  waited  in  this  room  a  very  few  minutes, 
a  young  man  with  a  pleasant  face,  and  modestly  dressed 
in  civilian’ s  clothes,  came  into  the  room,  and  greeted  us 
all  quietly  but  cordially.  This  was  His  Excellency, 
D.  Jose  Pardo,  President  of  the  Eepublic  of  Peru. 

His  voice  is  low  and  melodious  and  his  face  expressive, 
and,  though  he  speaks  no  English,  and  I  no  Spanish, 
we  got  on  very  well  through  my  kind  interpreters, 
Hon.  E.  E.  Neill  and  Eev.  J.  S.  Watson. 

After  Mr.  Watson  had  explained  the  object  and  extent 
of  the  Christian  Endeavour  movement,  President  Pardo 
asked  whether  it  was  a  Catholic  movement. 

“No,”  answered  Mr.  Neill  diplomatically,  “it  is 
just  Christian.” 

“Then,”  said  the  president  to  me  with  a  twinkle  in  his 
eye,  “we  shall  have  to  apply  Section  4  of  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  to  you,”  at  which  the  others  smiled  audibly  ;  for  they 
understood,  as  I  did  not,  that  Section  4  was  the  article  of 
the  Constitution  which  forbids  the  propaganda  of  any  re¬ 
ligion  except  the  Eoman  Catholic. 

However,  we  all  saw  that  the  president  was  not  very 
serious,  and  he  went  on  to  say  to  me,  “The  spirit  of  the 
people  of  Peru  is  very  tolerant,  though  the  Constitution 
is  very  intolerant.” 

This  expresses  the  truth,  I  am  told,  about  Peru,  very 
happily.  The  Constitution  promulgated  in  1860  is  still 
in  force,  and  this  forbids  Peruvians  to  embrace  any  re¬ 
ligion  but  the  Eoman  Catholic.  But,  while  the  Constitu¬ 
tion  remains  the  same,  the  spirit  of  the  people  and 
the  spirit  of  the  times  have  changed,  and  Protestant 
workers  meet  with  little  opposition  in  the  centres  of 
population. 


THE  PRESIDENTS  OF  FOUR  REPUBLICS  283 


Theoretically  they  still  meet  in  private  houses,  and 
not  in  public  churches j  but  practically  they  have 
much  liberty,  as  the  Protestant  work  that  is  carried  on 
in  Peru,  both  educational  and  evangelistic,  distinctly 
testifies. 

After  a  little  further  conversation  with  the  president 
on  general  subjects,  a  conversation  in  which  he  expressed 
his  high  regard  for  the  American  people  and  our  own 
honoured  president,  the  interview  came  to  an  end,  and  I 
left  the  palace  feeling  that  all  I  had  heard  to  the  credit  of 
the  president  of  Peru  from  foreigners  and  natives,  mis¬ 
sionaries  and  merchants  alike,  was  true,  and  that  the  ex¬ 
ecutive  of  the  nation  was  an  efficient,  forceful,  modest, 
unassuming  gentleman  ;  and  that  is  no  small  thing  to  say 
of  any  man,  be  he  in  high  position  or  low. 

The  president  of  the  rival  republic  of  Chile  is  a  very 
different  man  in  appearance  from  the  President  of  Peru  ; 
an  older  man,  a  man  with  deeper  furrows  in  his  brows, 
and  of  a  more  anxious,  care-worn  expression  ;  and  well 
he  may  be,  for  his  administration  has  not  been  an  un¬ 
troubled  one.  His  foes  have  been  largely  those  of  his 
own  household,  and  he  has  found  it  a  difficult  task  to 
make  the  different  departments  of  the  Chilian  national 
government  pull  together  in  a  way  which  in  his  opinion 
insures  the  welfare  of  the  people. 

Still  his  face  is  one  of  force  and  native  dignity,  and  on 
all  hands  I  heard  only  good  things  concerning  his  per¬ 
sonal  integrity,  and  his  genuine  patriotism.  It  takes  a 
man  of  remarkable  strength  and  popularity  to  carry  the 
governmental  ship  of  Chile  through  the  breakers  safely  just 
at  this  time.  Perhaps  no  one  could  do  it  better  than 
President  Montt,  and  after  seeing  him,  I  could  not  but 
congratulate  the  country  on  having  a  man  of  such  serious¬ 
ness  of  purpose  and  devoted  earnestness  at  the  head  of 
affairs  just  now.  He  is  the  son  of  one  of  Chile’s  greatest 


284  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOBTUNITY 


presidents,  and  looks  not  unlike  President  Diaz  of  Mexico. 
His  swarthy  face,  like  that  of  Mexico’s  president,  declares 
his  partial  Indian  descent.  His  official  residence  is  the 
palace  of  Santiago,  which  though  a  large  and  stately  edi¬ 
fice,  has  about  it  a  certain  republican  simplicity  of  style 
appropriate  to  the  century  and  the  country  where  the 
chief  magistrate  lives. 

There  were  few  guards,  and  little  pomp  or  circumstance 
about  the  president’s  reception  of  us.  He  came  into  the 
room  entirely  unattended,  and  greeted  my  companions 
and  myself  in  a  most  friendly  and  democratic  manner. 

He  told  me  of  his  interest  in  the  undeveloped  races 
of  his  own  land,  and  his  desire  that  the  great  curse  of  the 
aboriginal  races,  the  strong  fire  water  of  the  whites,  might 
be  kept  away  from  them.  President  Montt  is  cartooned 
outrageously  in  the  Chilean  papers  of  the  yellow  type, 
and  during  my  visit  one  of  them  appeared  with  a  blas¬ 
phemous  cartoon  of  the  Kepublic  of  Chile,  being  crucified 
between  two  thieves, — the  present  president  and  his 
predecessor.  But  all  good  men  must  expect  such  treat¬ 
ment  at  the  hands  of  ribald  yellow  journals  like  this,  and 
it  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  honest  men  of  Chile  speak 
well  of  their  honest  president,  even  when  they  do  not 
agree  with  his  politics. 

The  President  of  Argentina  is  a  younger  man  than 
President  Montt ;  somewhat  dapper,  though  not  dandified, 
he  has  the  reputation  of  appreciating  and  maintaining  the 
dignity  which  doth  hedge  a  president. 

His  cabinet  and  councillors,  some  of  whom  I  met,  are 
more  easy  in  their  manners  than  the  president,  who,  how¬ 
ever,  does  not  lack  in  dignity,  and  a  pleasant  address. 
Sefior  Alcorta  came  into  power  as  did  President  Boose- 
velt  at  first,  on  the  decease  of  the  former  president,  who 
died  early  in  his  term  of  office,  and  with  whom  he  had 


THE  PRESIDENTS  OF  FOUR  REPUBLICS  285 


been  serving  as  vice-president  of  the  republic.  I  was  ac¬ 
companied  by  Hon.  A.  M.  Beaupre,  our  American  min¬ 
ister,  and  by  Dr.  Drees,  the  Presiding  Elder  of  the  Meth¬ 
odist  church,  who  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  in¬ 
terpreter  in  Argentina.  He  translated  what  I  had  to  say 
to  the  president,  who  speaks  no  English,  and  he  put  my 
questions  and  remarks  into  such  elegant  and  courtly 
Spanish,  that  however  much  of  a  stickler  for  etiquette  the 
president  may  be  (thanks  to  Dr.  Drees),  he  could  find  no 
fault  with  the  interview.  He  too  assured  me  that  he  was 
especially  interested  in  civilizing  and  Christianizing  the 
Indians  in  the  remote  parts  of  Argentina,  and  that  for  this 
provision  was  made  even  in  the  constitution  of  the 
country. 

The  palace  which  contains  the  government  offices  of 
Argentina  is  an  imposing  building  fronting  on  the  beautiful 
Plaza  de  Mayo,  and  all  the  surroundings  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  House,  are  worthy  of  the  prosperous  Republic  of 
which  it  is  the  governmental  heart  and  head. 

These  visits  to  the  presidents  of  these  four  republics, 
and  other  high  dignitaries  whom  I  met  at  various  times 
and  in  these  and  other  countries,  made  upon  me  the  im¬ 
pression  that  however  much  the  subordinate  officials  of  the 
South  American  republics  may  deserve  their  reputation 
for  graft  and  dishonesty,  this  rottenness  does  not  reach  to 
the  higher  places  in  the  government  any  more  than  in 
our  own  country,  that  those  who  rule  the  affairs  of  the 
leading  republics  of  South  America  at  least,  are  honest 
men  and  true  patriots,  and  that  their  example  will  make 
for  a  higher  grade  of  citizenship  than  these  republics  have 
known  in  their  troublous  past. 


XXXV 


HOW  WE  JOURNEYED 

A  Pullman  Train  or  an  Oxcart — Travelling  in  Colombia  and  Ecuador — 
Peruvian  Railways — Improvements  in  Chile  and  Argentina — The 
American  Style  Adopted— High  Fares — Street-Car  Travel — An  Elec¬ 
tric  Car  Lottery — Carriages  in  Santiago  and  Rio — Lifts  for  High 
Levels — Steamer  Travel — Exorbitant  Charges  on  Steamers — Over¬ 
crowding-Genial  Officers — The  Longest,  Quickest  Way  Home. 

THERE  are  few  people  who  are  not  interested  in 
the  means  of  locomotion  in  a  land  they  have 
not  visited.  Those  who  expect  to  travel  there, 
wish  to  know  how  they  will  get  from  place  to  place,  while 
stay-at-homes  are  interested  to  know  how  travellers  fare. 
As  an  indication  of  advancement,  too,  there  are  few  surer 
signs  than  the  means  of  travel,  for  civilization  is  largely 
a  matter  of  intercommunication. 

When  we  come  to  describe  the  means  of  travel  in  South 
America,  however,  it  is  something  like  describing  the 
weather  of  the  United  States.  There  you  can  have  sun¬ 
shine  and  storm,  sweltering  heat  and  an  arctic  blizzard 
on  the  same  day.  So  in  South  America,  you  can  go  on 
foot,  on  mule  back,  in  a  Pullman  palace  train,  on  an  ox¬ 
cart  with  fourteenth  century  wheels,  or  on  a  modern  ten 
thousand  ton  steamer,  according  to  the  part  of  the  coun¬ 
try  you  may  wish  to  visit. 

But  a  few  facts,  gleaned  largely  from  experience  in  the 
different  South  American  countries,  will  perhaps  be  found 
of  interest. 

In  Colombia,  railways  are  few  and  walking  is  not  good, 
but  mules  are  sturdy  and  the  abundant  water  ways  give 
some  help  to  travellers  in  the  interior.  It  takes,  how- 

286 


HOW  WE  JOUKNEYED 


287 


ever,  nearly  a  week  to  reach  Bogota,  the  capital,  from 
the  coast,  by  the  fastest  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  trav¬ 
eller,  which  for  the  most  of  the  way  is  the  patient  mnle. 
This  mode  of  travel,  much  the  same  as  in  Abraham’s 
day,  still  prevails  in  many  parts  of  South  America. 

In  Ecuador  railways  are  being  pushed  more  rapidly, 
and  from  Guayaquil,  the  seaport,  one  could  get  within 
seventy-five  miles  of  Quito,  the  capital,  by  rail,  and  the 
rest  of  the  way  by  automobile,  early  in  1907.  Yery  soon 
the  whole  distance  can  be  covered  by  rail ;  but  elsewhere 
in  this  republic  travel  is,  and  long  will  be,  by  river  boat 
or  on  mule  back. 

In  Peru  a  number  of  short  railways  run  from  the  sea- 
coast  up  the  river  valleys  to  bring  down  their  rich 
products  to  the  sea,  two  lines  are  built  to  the  great  cop¬ 
per  mines  of  the  interior.  Of  these,  the  Oroya  road  that 
runs  from  Lima  to  the  Cerro  de  Pasco  mines  is  one  of  the 
marvels  of  engineering,  especially  when  we  remember  that 
it  was  built  forty  years  ago.  At  the  time,  nothing  so 
bold  had  been  attempted,  in  the  Alps  or  the  Rockies,  and 
to  this  day  it  is  the  highest  railway  in  the  world,  crossing 
the  Andes  at  a  height  of  more  than  16,000  feet,  or  con¬ 
siderably  higher  than  the  summit  of  Mt.  Blanc. 

From  Mollendo  on  the  coast  south  of  Lima,  another 
Peruvian  railway  runs  some  300  miles  to  Lake  Titicaca, 
and  crosses  the  Andes  at  a  height  of  over  14,000  feet. 
The  engineering  difficulties  are  not  so  great  on  this  line, 
but  still  they  are  sufficient  to  stagger  any  but  the  most 
bold  and  courageous  railway  builders. 

The  road-bed  on  both  of  these  lines  is  fairly  good,  but 
the  rails  are  light  and  the  equipment  poor.  On  the  line 
from  Mollendo,  in  fact,  the  cars  are  so  shaky,  especially 
on  the  part  beyond  Arequipa,  that  it  seems  as  if  they 
would  hardly  hold  together  to  the  journey’s  end,  and  in, a 
heavy  shower  they  leak  at  every  crack  in  the  roof. 


288  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


In  Chile  the  cars  are  much  better,  and  on  the  line  from 
Valparaiso  to  Santiago  and  thence  to  Concepcion,  and 
the  one  to  Los  Andes  in  the  mountains,  compare  favour¬ 
ably  with  the  rolling  stock  on  our  best  American  roads. 

In  Argentina,  too,  they  are  of  the  same  substantial 
character,  and  the  great  transcontinental  line  across  the 
pampas  is  quite  equal  to  the  average  railway  of  the 
United  States  in  construction  and  equipment.  The  sleep¬ 
ing  cars,  however,  could  be  much  improved,  for  though 
the  berths  are  wide  and  roomy,  the  cars  are  not  well 
constructed,  and  the  single  windows  let  in  the  fine  dust 
of  the  pampas  so  that  the  cars  become  intolerably  dirty 
before  the  twenty-four  hours’  journey  is  over. 

In  Uruguay  the  railway  equipment  is  much  the  same 
as  in  Argentina,  and  considering  the  size  of  the  country 
it  has  a  large  railway  mileage. 

In  Brazil  railway  extension  has  advanced  rapidly  of 
late,  and  the  iron  horse  is  pushing  his  way  far  into  the 
interior.  Some  of  the  railways  are  narrow  guage,  but 
most  of  them  are  of  standard  guage  with  cars  and  engines 
much  like  those  we  are  accustomed  to  in  the  United 
States.  In  fact  most  of  the  equipment  of  South  Amer¬ 
ican  roads  comes  from  “the  States,”  and  the  names  of 
Philadelphia,  Wilmington  and  Worcester  makers  one 
sees  everywhere  on  the  high  Andes  of  the  west  coast,  the 
great  plateaus  of  Peru  and  Bolivia,  and  the  vast  alluvial 
plains  of  the  south. 

The  American  as  distinct  from  the  European  style 
of  compartment  coaches  has  been  adopted  in  all  these 
countries,  and  people  crowd  together  democratically  in 
the  same  car  to  the  number  of  forty  or  fifty,  as  with  us. 
Sometimes  there  is  a  division  in  the  middle  of  the  car, 
and  occasionally  a  small  section  of  the  car  at  one  end  is 
partitioned  off  for  the  men  smokers,  but,  in  most  coun¬ 
tries,  every  car  and  every  part  of  every  car  is  a  smoking  car. 


HOW  WE  JOURNEYED 


289 


The  caste  provocative  system  of  first  and  second  class 
prevails  in  most  of  the  republics,  though  they  do  not 
descend  to  third-  and  fourth-class  cars  as  in  monarchical 
lands. 

The  fares,  except  in  Chile,  are  considerably  higher 
than  in  the  United  States  for  first-class  passengers — in 
fact  about  twice  as  high,  while  second-class  passengers 
pay  about  the  same  as  the  ordinary  first-class  fares  in  the 
older  section  of  the  United  States. 

The  sleeping  car  rates  are  exceedingly  high,  being 
about  six  dollars  in  gold  per  night  for  a  single  berth  in 
Brazil.  They  are  not  quite  so  high  in  Argentina,  the 
only  other  country  where  sleeping  cars  are  extensively 
used.  In  some  of  the  republics  no  passenger  trains  run 
at  night. 

Street  car  travel  has  received  a  great  impetus  of  late 
by  the  general  introduction  of  the  electric  trolley  into  the 
larger  cities.  A  few  years  ago,  every  wheel  in  the  streets 
of  South  America  was  turned  by  the  horse  or  the  sturdy 
mule.  Even  in  such  cities  as  Buenos  Ayres  and  Santiago 
there  was  no  other  cheap  means  of  transit  except  the 
primitive  “foot  and  walkers”  express  which  has  always 
been  in  vogue.  The  slow  and  halting  mule  cars  ambled 
through  all  the  best  streets,  the  driver  blowing  a  cow  horn 
at  every  street  crossing,  a  needless  warning,  it  would  seem, 
since  he  could  scarcely  run  over  anything  even  if  he  tried. 
Whenever  a  passenger  held  up  his  hand,  he  would  stop, 
and  people  would  not  move  ten  feet  for  the  sake  of 
saving  a  stop. 

Now  in  the  larger  cities,  American  electric  cars  go 
whizzing  through  the  streets  at  what  seems  a  most  reck¬ 
less  rate,  stopping  only  at  the  white  posts,  as  in  our 
cities.  Indeed,  so  fast  and  murderous  are  some  of  the  cars 
in  Rio,  which  are  painted  a  lemon  colour,  that  they  are 
called  the  ‘ 4  yellow  peril 7  7  by  the  humorous  Fluminensians, 


290  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


To  be  sure,  the  mule  car  lingers  in  many  of  the  streets 
of  Rio  still,  as  well  as  in  Montevideo,  and  in  most  of  the 
smaller  cities,  but  the  mule  is  rapidly  being  displaced  and 
soon  the  streets  that  knew  him  will  know  him  no  more. 

The  Light  and  Power  Company,  composed  of  American 
capitalists,  is  one  of  the  two  concerns  which  has  revolu¬ 
tionized  the  street  traffic  of  South  America.  Another 
similar  company  is  capitalized  largely  in  Brazil  while 
the  former  is  incorporated  in  Toronto  and  employs  both 
Canadian  and  United  States  capital.  Both  are  exceed¬ 
ingly  successful  and  greatly  appreciated  by  the  South 
Americans. 

The  fares  on  the  street  cars  are  much  the  same  as  in 
North  America,  averaging  about  five  cents  in  gold  for  an 
ordinary  ride.  In  Valparaiso,  however,  the  fare  is  but 
five  cents  in  Chilean  paper  money  or  a  cent  and  a  quarter 
in  gold,  a  ruinously  low  rate,  one  would  think. 

In  Lima  and  some  other  cities,  as  has  been  stated,  the 
street  car  companies  have  organized  a  lottery  to  circum¬ 
vent  dishonest  conductors  and  every  ticket  is  numbered 
and  stands  a  remote  chance  of  drawing  a  prize.  The 
chance  is  not  so  remote,  however,  as  to  prevent  the  pas¬ 
sengers  from  taking  and  preserving  their  tickets  in  the 
hope  of  securing  the  prize  and  thus  preventing  the  ticket 
puncher  from  selling  it  over  again.  In  Rio  de  Janeiro  the 
tickets  are  redeemed  at  one  per  cent,  of  their  value.  The 
ordinary  fare  on  the  electric  cars  is  200  reis  (about  six 
cents),  though  some  tickets  cost  300  and  400  reis,  accord¬ 
ing  to  distance.  When  taken  to  the  office  of  the  company, 
they  are  redeemed  for  two,  three  or  four  reis,  according 
to  their  face  value. 

The  cabs  in  South  America  are  of  almost  as  many 
varieties  as  the  cities  in  which  they  ply,  though  the  vic¬ 
toria,  such  as  is  used  in  Paris,  Rome  and  other  conti¬ 
nental  cities,  is  the  most  usual  type. 


HOW  WE  JOURNEYED 


291 


In  Santiago  a  peculiar,  lumbering,  funereal  type  of  car¬ 
riage  is  used,  but  it  is  strong  and  serviceable  on  the 
rough  pavements  which  abound  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
city. 

In  Rio,  besides  the  two-horse  carriage,  the  one  horse 
Tillbury  (named  after  the  English  inventor)  abounds. 
It  is  exactly  like  the  old  New  England  chaise,  the  deacon’s 
“one  horse  shay”  which  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  has 
immortalized.  It  seats  only  one  person  besides  the  driver, 
so  that  if  a  man  and  his  wife  wish  to  ride,  they  must  take 
two  Tillburys.  The  driver  sits  beside  his  passenger  in 
democratic  equality,  but  it  is  a  very  expensive  mode  of 
locomotion,  and  when  it  comes  to  taking  a  two-horse  car¬ 
riage,  most  people  prefer  to  walk,  as  it  is  a  common  say¬ 
ing  that  it  is  cheaper  to  buy  the  rig  outright  than  to 
hire  it. 

The  Tillbury  was  probably  introduced  into  Rio  for  the 
same  reason  that  it  was  once  used  in  New  England,  be¬ 
cause  the  heavy  springs  make  the  inevitable  bumps  and 
jounces  of  the  poor  roads  less  intolerable.  Now,  however, 
that  Rio  is  being  repaved  with  asphalt,  in  its  principal 
streets,  the  Tillbury  will  doubtless  soon  go  into  limbo. 

There  are  as  yet  no  elevated  roads  or  subways  in  South 
American  cities,  though  the  congested  streets  of  Buenos 
Ayres  would  make  them  most  desirable  in  that  city.  In 
no  other  city  are  the  streets  sufficiently  crowded  to  call 
for  them  as  yet.  Rio  de  Janeiro  is  nearly  as  large  as 
Buenos  Ayres,  to  be  sure,  but  the  city  is  so  spread  out 
around  the  beautiful  bay  that  no  one  street  is  as  crowded 
as  the  Avenue  de  Mayo  or  the  streets  of  San  Martin  or 
25th  de  Mayo  in  Buenos  Ayres. 

Several  South  American  cities  rise  steeply  from  the  sea 
with  but  little  building  ground  except  on  the  upper  bluffs. 
Valparaiso  is  notably  one  of  these  cities,  and  in  order 
that  the  people  may  get  from  the  lower  city  to  the  upper 


292  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


without  too  much  leg  weariness,  ten  elevators  or  rack  and 
pinion  lifts  have  been  built  at  various  points,  where  for 
five  cents  one  can  mount  to  the  upper  levels. 

Bahia  is  another  such  city  where  the  upper  and  lower 
towns  are  connected  by  two  inclined  plane  railways,  and 
one  new  American  u  lift”  which  is  justly  prized  by  the 
inhabitants. 

When  one  comes  to  steamer  accommodations,  both 
coastwise  and  over-sea  steamers,  much  is  left  to  be  de¬ 
sired.  On  the  west  coast  the  steamers  are  slow,  unre¬ 
liable,  and  often  worn  out,  by  much  hard  service.  There 
are  two  principal  passenger  lines,  the  Pacific  Steam  Navi¬ 
gation  Company  and  the  Sud  Americana,  or  Chilean  line. 
These  lines  have  pooled  their  issues,  and  tickets  on  either 
of  them  are  interchangeable.  They  are  equally  poor  and 
equally  slow  and  equally  expensive.  The  only  good 
thing  about  them  is  the  large  and  airy  staterooms  which 
all  open  on  the  quarter  deck.  They  are  well  furnished 
and  the  berths  are  unusually  large  and  comfortable. 

The  chief  officers,  too,  who  are  English  or  Scotch,  on 
both  lines,  are  gentlemanly  and  intelligent  and  know 
their  business.  When  this  has  been  admitted,  all  that  is 
to  the  credit  of  the  companies  has  been  said.  The  table 
is  poor  and  the  food  monotonous  and  ill-cooked.  It  is 
all  in  Spanish  style,  which  perhaps  is  natural  enough, 
since  nine-tenths  of  the  passengers  speak  the  language  of 
the  Castilians. 

The  stops  seem  innumerable.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  are  some  twenty-three  ports  between  Panama  and 
Valparaiso,  at  which  the  steamers  stop  from  four  hours 
to  three  days,  so  that  it  takes  usually  twenty- six  days  to 
cover  a  distance  no  longer  than  from  New  York  to  Liver¬ 
pool.  The  fares  on  these  lines,  too,  are  abnormally  high, 
as  I  have  remarked  in  another  chapter.  From  Panama 
to  Guayaquil,  a  distance  of  about  800  miles,  the  fare  is 


HOW  WE  JOUBNEYED 


293 


over  $90  in  gold,  while  a  ticket  to  Valparaiso,  some  3,000 
miles  from  Panama,  costs  $225  or  three  times  what  the 
same  accommodations  would  cost  across  the  North 
Atlantic. 

But  the  worst  count  against  these  steamers  is  the  way 
they  are  crowded  with  passengers  and  the  unsafe  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  ships.  From  Iquique  to  Valparaiso  the 
steamer  on  which  I  was  embarked,  carried  at  least  twice 
as  many  passengers  as  she  should  have  been  allowed  to 
take.  Passengers  were  sleeping  in  the  companionway, 
the  dining-room,  the  bath  rooms,  as  well  as  on  deck.  If 
there  had  been  a  shipwreck  there  would  have  been  a 
frightful  loss  of  life,  as  there  were  not  boats  enough  for  a 
third  of  the  passengers.  As  it  was,  an  accident  was 
barely  averted,  for  the  worn-out  pumps  refused  to  work, 
the  boilers  began  to  leak  and  the  steering  gear  went 
wrong.  For  a  large  part  of  one  day  we  could  make  but 
five  miles  an  hour,  and  it  seemed  a  special  interposition 
of  Providence  that  we  got  safely  to  port  with  our  great 
crowd  of  passengers.  Then  the  old  ship  was  tinkered  up 
in  the  dry  dock,  and  soon  sent  off  on  another  perilous 
voyage.  A  German  line  is  doing  a  good  business  on  this 
coast,  but  there  is  surely  room  for  a  first-class  fleet  of 
steamers  that  will  make  the  3, 000  miles  between  Panama 
and  Valparaiso  in  twelve  or  fourteen  days.  The  opening 
of  the  Panama  Canal  will  doubtless  hasten  this  consum¬ 
mation,  so  devoutlv  to  be  wished. 

On  the  Atlantic  side  of  South  America,  conditions  of 
travel  are  much  better,  for  more  lines  are  in  competition, 
but  even  there  they  lag  far  behind  the  North  American 
lines.  The  Boyal  Mail  and  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation 
Company  each  have  two  or  three  good  modern  steamers 
of  some  9,000  or  10,000  tons  burden  each,  but  the  older 
steamers  are  decidedly  second  rate  and  in  the  popular 
season  for  travel  are  greatly  over- crowded.  The  steerage 


294  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


accommodations  of  some  of  these  older  ships  are  dis¬ 
graceful  and  filthy  beyond  description. 

On  all  the  steamers,  and  I  have  travelled  on  seven  or 
eight  of  them,  I  have  found  the  officers  gentlemanly  as 
well  as  efficient,  a  decided  contrast  to  some  of  their 
brother  officers  on  the  North  Atlantic  service.  The  per¬ 
sonnel  of  the  officers  alone  makes  travel  on  some  of  these 
steamers  reasonably  pleasant. 

Besides  these  two  English  lines  there  are  two  French 
lines,  one  Spanish,  two  German  and  one  or  two  Italian 
lines,  while  the  New  Zealand  service  of  the  White  Star 
Line  touches  at  some  South  American  ports. 

The  only  regular  line  that  runs  directly  to  North 
America  is  the  Lamport  and  Holt,  a  British  company, 
which  sends  a  small  but  comfortable  express  steamer 
once  a  month  from  Rio  to  New  York,  and  an  intermediate 
boat  also  monthly,  with  very  limited  passenger  accommo¬ 
dations.  So  that  practically  unless  one  is  prepared  to 
wait  a  month  for  his  steamer  in  order  to  get  from  South 
America  to  North  America  he  must  cross  to  Southampton 
or  Liverpool  some  6,500  miles  from  Buenos  Ayres,  and 
then  cross  the  North  Atlantic  3,000  miles  more,  sailing 
some  10,000  miles  north  and  east  and  then  southwest,  to 
make  less’than  6,000  miles  north,  and  visiting  the  eastern 
hemisphere  in  order  to  get  from  one  point  to  another  in 
the  western  hemisphere. 

If  any  argument  can  speak  more  loudly  for  any  reason¬ 
able  means  of  bringing  the  two  halves  of  America  closer 
together,  the  writer  confesses  that  he  does  not  know  what 
it  can  be. 


XXX  YI 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  EDUCATION 

South  America  Not  a  Unit — The  Percentage  of  Illiteracy — Public 
Schools  in  Argentina— Skilled  Head-masters  Needed— Normal  Schools 
of  Brazil — The  Kindergarten  Department— Self-possessed  Infants— 
The  Influence  of  the  United  States — Woman’s  Former  Position — 
South  American  Universities — Public  Libraries — Mission  Schools — 
McKenzie  College— Education  Preceding  Protestant  Effort. 

IX  one  brief  chapter  on  so  large  a  subject  as  education 
in  South  America,  one  cannot  go  into  particulars 
and  quote  statistics  concerning  the  comparative  lit¬ 
eracy  of  the  many  different  republics,  but  merely  try  to 
give  the  general  situation  as  a  traveller  learns  it  from 
governmental  reports,  conversations  with  educators,  and 
visits  to  some  important  schools. 

It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  South  America 
is  by  no  means  a  unit  in  education,  politics  or  general  ad¬ 
vancement.  Massachusetts  differs  radically  from  Ar¬ 
kansas  in  these  matters,  but  not  nearly  so  much  as  Ven¬ 
ezuela  differs  from  Argentina.  In  fact,  Hayti  and  Con¬ 
necticut  are  scarcely  farther  apart  in  matters  of  education 
than  some  of  the  northern  states  of  South  America  are 
from  their  southern  neighbours. 

Speaking  in  a  general  way,  the  percentage  of  illiteracy 
is  very  high  throughout  South  America,  but  the  hopeful 
feature  is  that  it  is  constantly  growing  smaller.  In  Bra¬ 
zil,  for  instance,  a  score  of  years  ago  more  than  eighty  per 
cent,  of  the  people  could  neither  read  nor  write,  now  the 
percentage  is  reduced  to  less  than  seventy,  and  constant 
improvement  is  recorded. 


295 


296  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOETUNITY 


While  in  Colombia  and  Venezuela  very  little  is  done 
for  education  except  by  the  Catholic  priests  and  Protestant 
missionaries,  in  Argentina  and  Chile  good  government 
free  schools  are  provided  in  most  places,  and  the  people 
of  all  classes  are  almost  as  keen  for  an  education  as  in 
New  York  or  Illinois.  In  Buenos  Ayres,  in  Santiago,  in 
Sao  Paulo,  you  will  find  some  of  the  finest  school  build¬ 
ings  in  the  world,  while  many  of  the  back  districts  are  as 
innocent  of  schoolhouses  as  the  desert  of  Sahara. 

On  the  whole,  Argentina  seems  to  have  the  best  system 
of  public  schools,  and  one  that  is  becoming  the  model  of 
the  other  more  progressive  republics.  Argentina  in  turn 
imported  her  school  system  from  the  United  States,  and 
in  its  earlier  days  brought  many  teachers  from  the  States 
to  introduce  it.  When  her  own  teachers  were  educated 
and  her  normal  schools  were  established,  the  American 
teachers  were  sent  home,  but  not  before  they  had  set  their 
seal  indelibly  upon  the  schools  of  the  second  greatest  re¬ 
public  of  South  America,  and  had  influenced  to  a  consid¬ 
erable  degree  the  educational  system  of  the  whole  con¬ 
tinent. 

In  Brazil  something  of  the  same  kind  has  been  at¬ 
tempted,  but  not  on  so  large  a  scale,  and  in  Eio  de 
Janeiro,  though  fine  large  public  school  buildings  have 
been  erected,  it  has  been  found  difficult  to  obtain  masters 
who  could  manage  them,  and  many  of  the  schools  are  still 
continued  in  small  private  homes  where  a  few  children 
gather  under  a  single  teacher,  while  the  great  schoolhouse 
has  sometimes  been  devoted  to  other  government  uses. 

Skilled  head-masters  will  doubtless  be  trained  in  good 
time,  for  in  Sao  Paulo  the  progressive  capital  of  the  most 
progressive  state  in  Brazil,  I  found  one  of  the  finest  nor¬ 
mal  schools  I  have  ever  visited,  and  there  are  others  of 
equally  high  grade  in  other  cities.  The  building  in  which 
the  Sao  Paulo  school  is  housed  is  truly  palatial,  without 


THE  PROGRESS  OP  EDUCATION 


297 


and  within.  It  is  very  large,  built  around  a  beautiful 
court  adorned  with  flowers,  and  contains  not  only  many 
rooms  for  the  training  of  teachers,  but  kindergarten  rooms, 
and  model  primary  schools  where  the  normal  pupils  may 
get  practice  as  well  as  instruction. 

There  are  far  more  women  than  men  in  training  for  the 
future  teachers  of  Brazil,  as  is  apt  to  be  the  case  in  our 
own  normal  schools,  and  the  girls  are  bright,  attractive, 
and  apparently  very  much  in  earnest  in  their  classes. 

I  was  particularly  interested  in  the  kindergarten  rooms 
of  the  normal  school,  in  noticing  the  difference  between 
young  Latin  America,  and  young  Anglo-Saxon  America. 
The  Brazilian  infants  were  as  self-possessed  as  the  Senors 
and  Senoritas  themselves.  They  not  only  went  through 
their  games  and  their  calisthenics  without  any  show  of 
embarrassment  at  the  strangers  who  were  looking  on,  but 
gave  their  recitations  and  acted  their  little  plays  with  all 
the  assurance  and  sangfroid  of  experienced  orators  and 
actors.  No  sheepish  looks,  no  fingers  stuck  in  little 
mouths,  no  stage  fright  or  embarrassed  forgetfulness,  but 
each  one  not  only  u  remembered  her  manners,”  but  mod¬ 
ulated  her  voice,  smiled  or  frowned,  and  gesticulated  in 
the  appropriate  places,  as  though  she  had  been  all  her 
life  before  the  footlights. 

It  is  a  racial  characteristic, — this  self-possession  and 
lack  of  embarrassment.  Indeed,  among  children  as  well 
as  grown  people,  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  the  most  bashful  and 
self-conscious  to  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

In  his  religion,  too,  the  Anglo-Saxon  assumes  indiffer¬ 
ence  and  refuses  to  pray  or  read  his  Bible  when  any  one 
is  looking,  while  the  Turk  five  times  a  day  prostrates 
himself  with  his  face  towards  Mecca,  the  Russian  soldier 
prays  before  the  whole  regiment,  and  the  Roman  priest 
thumbs  his  prayer  book  in  every  railway  train. 

The  same  self-possession  and  disregard  of  spectators  is 


298  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


seen  in  all  lines  of  public  effort,  and  is  nowhere  more  no¬ 
ticeable  than  in  the  little  men  and  women  of  the  public 
schools  that  one  sees  in  Latin  America. 

The  founder  of  the  great  Sao  Paulo  Normal  school,  Miss 
Brown,  was  an  American,  and  her  name  is  still  held  in 
fragrant  remembrance  in  the  State  and  in  educational 
circles  throughout  Brazil. 

Other  normal  schools  are  being  multiplied  in  different 
centres  of  Brazil,  and  will  doubtless  have  a  great  effect  in 
promoting  the  efficiency  of  the  public  schools  of  this  great 
republic. 

When  crossing  Lake  Titicaca  one  dark  and  stormy 
night,  bound  from  Peru  to  Bolivia,  I  was  interested  to 
see  among  my  fellow  passengers  half  a  dozen  Chileno 
girls  who  were  going  to  Bolivia  to  teach  in  the  public 
schools.  At  their  head  was  an  intelligent  German  lady 
who  told  me  that  her  charges  though  not  ideal  teachers, 
were  the  best  she  could  get,  and  far  better  than  any  who 
had  yet  been  educated  in  Bolivia.  She  said  they  were 
particularly  lacking  in  physical  stamina,  took  little  ex¬ 
ercise,  and  were  too  much  afraid  of  fresh  air.  This  seems 
to  be  a  characteristic  of  South  American  women  gener¬ 
ally.  They  have  not  yet  escaped  the  thraldom  of  indoor 
life  which  was  their  heritage  from  the  old  Spanish  regime. 

In  fact,  in  the  older  days,  women  were  little  more  than 
prisoners  in  the  home,  and  the  careful  father  and  husband 
when  he  went  to  business  would  turn  the  key  on  them  we 
are  told,  that  they  might  come  to  no  harm  and  enter  into 
no  entangling  alliances  during  his  absence.  Though 
women  have  now  a  large  amount  of  freedom,  the  old  ideas 
that  prevailed  in  North  America  half  a  century  ago  are 
rife  in  some  quarters,  that  it  is  more  ladylike  to  have  a  sal¬ 
low  complexion,  flaccid  muscles  and  general  languor,  than 
to  run  and  row  and  play  basket-ball  and  tennis.  But  doubt¬ 
less  with  larger  social  freedom  and  a  more  liberal  educa- 


THE  PEOGEESS  OF  EDUCATION 


299 


tion  will  come  more  wholesome  views  of  physical  exercise 
and  development. 

Every  South  American  country  that  I  have  visited  has 
its  university  under  the  patronage  of  the  state,  but  it 
does  not  often  seem  to  play  a  large  part  in  the  life  of  the 
country,  or  to  give  its  students  a  very  profound  educa¬ 
tion.  The  strong  points  of  the  university  are  the  classics 
and  literature,  their  weak  points  science  and  engineering 
and  allied  practical  subjects.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
thoroughly  educated  men  in  all  branches  of  professional 
life  expect  to  finish  their  education  in  Europe  or  the 
United  States.  This  is  a  good  thing  in  its  way,  as  it 
induces  travel,  and  brings  far  more  educated  South 
Americans  in  touch  with  foreign  ideas  than  would  other¬ 
wise  imbibe  them.  I  was  not  surprised  that  these  uni¬ 
versities  were  not  more  important  factors  in  the  national 
life,  but  rather  that  they  existed  at  all  in  some  countries, 
like  Uruguay  for  instance,  where  revolution  has  suc¬ 
ceeded  revolution  in  such  quick  succession  that  one 
would  suppose  the  people  would  have  no  time  left  from 
their  strenuous  politics  to  devote  to  science  or  belle 
lettres.  Yet  the  most  conspicuous  building  one  sees 
on  landing  at  Montevideo  is  the  university  near  the 
shore. 

Every  large  city,  too,  has  its  library,  usually  not  very 
extensive  as  compared  with  the  great  modern  libraries  of 
North  America,  and  Europe,  but  containing  very  credit¬ 
able  collections  of  Spanish  and  foreign  authors. 

The  National  Peruvian  library  contains  fifty  thousand 
volumes,  and  is  rich  in  the  records  of  early  Spanish 
times.  It  suffered  greatly,  in  the  late  Peruvian- Chilean 
war,  when  it  was  sacked  by  the  Chileans,  and  many  of 
the  most  precious  volumes  were  stolen,  while  others  were 
tom  up  or  thrown  out  of  the  windows  by  the  vandals. 
This  piece  of  wanton  pillage  and  destruction  still  rankles 


300  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


most  hotly  in  the  veins  of  the  patriotic  Peruvians,  who 
are  awaiting  their  chance  for  a  bloody  reprisal. 

In  Rio  de  Janeiro  is  a  famous  Portuguese  library,  one 
of  the  best  in  the  world,  beautiful  in  its  exterior,  over 
which  carved  statues  of  the  greatest  Portuguese  stand 
guard,  while  within  the  works  of  all  the  important  Portu¬ 
guese  authors  fill  the  shelves.  Brazil  is  indeed  the  home 
of  the  best  Portuguese  literature  of  the  day,  and  the 
greatest  poets  who  have  written  in  that  mellifluous  lan¬ 
guage  for  a  hundred  years  have  been  and  are  Brazilian 
citizens. 

No  account  of  the  educated  or  educational  life  of  Brazil, 
however  brief,  is  complete  without  some  notice  of  the 
distinctively  American  schools  founded  by  American 
missionaries  of  the  Presbyterian  and  Methodist  boards. 
Their  educational  work  has  been  as  great  as  their  evan¬ 
gelistic,  and  it  has  been  pursued  diligently  from  the 
beginning  of  the  missions  more  than  forty  years  ago. 

Some  of  the  schools,  like  the  Methodist  college  of  Lima, 
the  Institute  Ingles  in  Santiago,  and  the  American  col¬ 
lege  for  girls  in  the  same  city,  the  Methodist  schools  in 
Concepcion,  Chile,  and  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  McKenzie 
College  in  Sao  Paulo,  have  achieved  more  than  a  national 
reputation.  They  are  patronized  by  students  from  the 
best  families.  Presidents,  governors,  senators,  and  men 
of  large  means,  send  their  children  to  them,  for  they  are 
recognized  in  many  cities  as  giving  the  best  education 
that  can  be  obtained. 

The  Instituto  Ingles  in  Santiago  under  the  able  direc¬ 
tion  of  Dr.  Browning  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  mis¬ 
sions,  may  be  taken  as  a  representative  of  one  of  these 
schools  of  higher  grade.  It  takes  boys  practically  through 
the  sophomore  year  of  our  average  North  American  col¬ 
lege,  and  is  always  crowded  with  students,  with  a  long 
waiting  list  that  cannot  be  accommodated.  I  have  never 


THE  PEOGEESS  OF  EDUCATION 


301 


addressed  a  brighter  or  more  attractive  company  of  boys 
than  I  met  at  more  than  one  chapel  exercise  in  the  Insti¬ 
tute  Ingles  of  Santiago.  Here  were  not  only  young 
Chileans,  but  many  Bolivians  and  some  from  Peru  and 
Argentina,  so  that  the  school  has  an  opportunity  of  doing 
an  international  work  for  South  America  scarcely  less 
important  than  Hubert  College  on  the  Bosphorus  is  doing 
for  the  Balkan  states,  or  the  Syrian  College  of  Constanti¬ 
nople  for  the  Levant. 

When  I  went  into  the  playground  I  found  that  the 
boys  could  play  even  harder  than  they  could  study,  an 
excellent  sign,  I  believe,  of  virility  and  national  vigour. 
In  fact,  I  have  never  seen  such  untiring  and  enthusiastic 
devotion  to  football  as  I  witnessed  at  Santiago. 

The  Institute  publishes  an  excellent  school  magazine, 
the  Southern  Cross,  which  in  its  make-up  and  literary 
excellence  would  do  credit  to  any  North  American  school 
of  like  grade. 

It  is  distinctly  understood  by  all  patrons  and  parents 
that  the  school  is  a  Protestant  school,  that  the  Bible  is 
to  be  read  and  studied,  and  that  attendance  at  morning 
prayers  is  compulsory,  though  students  can  attend  the 
church  of  their  parents’  preference.  Yet,  though  of 
course  the  great  majority  of  the  students  are  from  Eoman 
Catholic  families,  these  requirements  do  not  seem  to 
diminish  the  popularity  of  the  school. 

McKenzie  College  of  Sao  Paulo,  Brazil,  was  also  founded 
by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  missions,  and  is  undoubt¬ 
edly  the  school  of  the  highest  grade  of  its  kind  in  South 
America.  It  has  long  been  famous  throughout  Brazil. 
It  is  now  under  a  separate  board  of  trustees  and  no 
longer  directly  accountable  to  the  Presbyterian  Board, 
and,  in  the  opinion  of  most,  has  largely  lost  its  evangelical 
character.  It  is,  however,  an  intellectual  centre  of  much 
power  for  all  Brazil,  occupies  large  and  handsome  build- 


302  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOKTUNITY 


ings  in  a  commanding  situation  near  the  heart  of  Sao 
Paulo,  and  has  educated  some  of  the  most  influential 
professional  and  business  men  in  Brazil. 

There  are  also  a  multitude  of  mission  schools  of 
primary  or  grammar  grade  in  South  America,,  which  are 
doing  a  quiet  but  vastly  important  work,  for  many  of 
them  are  found  in  communities  where  were  it  not  for 
them,  children  would  receive  no  education  at  all.  Often 
the  missionary  finds  that  the  only  practical  way  of  obtain¬ 
ing  entrance  to  the  homes  and  hearts  of  the  people  is  to 
establish  a  school. 

In  La  Paz,  for  instance,  the  capital  of  Bolivia,  the  first 
thing  done  by  the  Methodist  missionaries,  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Harrington,  was  to  open  a  boarding  school  for  boys, 
which  was  so  immediately  successful  that  the  very  first 
year  boys  had  to  be  turned  away  for  lack  of  room.  Very 
soon  the  Bolivian  government  invited  Dr.  Harrington  to 
take  charge  of  public  instruction  in  the  Oruro  district, 
one  of  the  most  important  sections  of  Bolivia,  and  voted 
him  a  subvention  of  $36,000  for  his  work.  No  stronger 
proof  could  be  given  of  the  estimate  placed  by  a  progress¬ 
ive  South  American  republic  on  the  educational  value 
and  capability  of  an  American  missionary. 

Of  course  the  Protestant  religion  cannot  be  taught  in 
these  public  schools,  and  it  seems  to  involve  in  a  measure 
an  unfortunate  union  of  church  and  state,  but  it  gives  the 
missionary  an  admirable  opportunity  to  teach  ethics,  and 
to  mold  the  morals  of  the  rising  generation  of  Oruro,  an 
opportunity  which  he  will  be  sure  to  improve. . 

This  brief  outlook  over  the  educational  situation  of 
South  America  is  certainly  a  hopeful  one.  It  shows  the 
continent  to  be  in  this  respect,  as  in  so  many  others,  the 
land  of  opportunity  and  progress.  The  schoolmaster  is 
coming  to  his  own  in  South  America,  as  in  the  rest  of  the 
world.  The  people  are  eager  for  education  and  are  will- 


THE  PEOGEESS  OF  EDUCATION  303 


ing  to  pay  for  it,  and  though  these  southern  republics 
have  hitherto  lagged  far  behind  their  great  sister  of  North 
America,  most  of  them  are  now  doing  their  best  to  make 
the  gap  ever  narrower  and  narrower. 


XXXVII 


THE  INSCRUTABLE  POLITICS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 

The  Periodical  Upheavals — Why  Foreigners  do  not  Get  Naturalized — The 
Office-Seeking  Class — Loose  Allegiance  to  Central  Government — 
The  Inheritance  From  Spain — The  Influence  of  Religion — The  New 
England  Town  Meeting — Monarchy  Impossible — The  Presidents  of 
the  Republics— Facing  in  the  Right  Direction. 

POLITICS  in  South  America  is  a  difficult  and 
perilous  subject  for  a  foreigner  to  discuss.  It  is 
hard  for  him  to  understand,  and  there  are  many 
pitfalls  for  his  unwary  pen.  I  will,  however,  venture  some 
observations  of  these  matters  as  they  appear  to  a  traveller 
from  North  America. 

The  North  American  is  accustomed  to  think  of  at  least 
two  well  defined  political  parties,  of  regular  elections  in 
which  people  take  an  immense  interest,  and  which  arouse 
unlimited  excitement.  In  most  of  the  South  American 
republics  he  finds  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  dominant 
party,  controlling  the  machinery  of  government,  is  almost 
sure  to  win,  and  the  opposition  usually  take  it  for  granted 
that  it  will  win.  In  fact,  it  is  often  considered  indeli¬ 
cate,  apparently,  for  the  opposition  to  take  any  interest 
in  the  election,  and  they  often  refrain  from  voting  alto¬ 
gether. 

How  then  do  they  ever  get  into  power  ?  Usually  by  a 
revolution,  bloody  or  bloodless  as  the  case  may  be,  and 
this  accounts  for  the  periodical  upheavals  that  take  place 
at  frequent  intervals  in  many  of  the  republics.  When 
the  party  in  power  becomes  too  ambitious  or  corrupt,  or 
offends  public  sentiment  too  seriously  on  any  great  ques- 

304 


POLITICS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 


305 


tion,  then  the  opposition  party  finds  its  opportunity,  and 
under  some  vigorous  leader  rises  against  its  opponents, 
turns  the  Ins  out,  and  installs  the  Outs  in  place  of 
the  Ins. 

In  Horth  America  the  foreigner  is  likely  to  become 
a  naturalized  citizen,  as  soon  as  he  can  legally  do  so 
and  sometimes  before,  and  he  takes  as  warm  an  inter¬ 
est  in  politics  as  the  descendant  of  the  Puritan  or  the 
Cavalier.  Indeed  his  interest  is  often  more  ardent,  and 
he  votes  earlier  and  oftener  on  election  day  than  the  blue- 
blooded  native. 

In  South  America  the  foreigner  very  rarely  becomes 
naturalized,  or  takes  any  interest  in  national  politics. 
When  I  asked  my  English,  Scotch  or  North  American 
friends  who  had  lived  practically  all  their  lives  in  South 
America,  why  they  did  not  cast  in  their  lot  with  the 
country  of  their  adoption,  and  become  her  naturalized 
citizens,  they  would  shrug  their  shoulders  and  say  that  it 
would  be  of  little  use  to  vote  so  far  as  influencing  the 
election  was  concerned,  for  their  votes  would  not  be 
counted  unless  it  pleased  the  authorities  in  power  to  do 
so,  and  besides  in  case  of  trouble  they  preferred  the  pro¬ 
tection  of  their  home  governments. 

In  North  America  the  office-seeking  class,  though 
sufficiently  large  and  clamorous,  is  not  overwhelming  in 
proportion  to  the  people  who  for  the  most  part  prefer 
business,  agriculture  or  professional  life. 

In  South  America  the  proportion  of  office-seekers  and 
the  places  for  office-seekers  seem  altogether  out  of  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  people  who  care  to  do  anything  else,  and 
most  officials  are  said  to  feather  their  nests  most  success¬ 
fully  during  even  a  short  term  in  office.  I  am  speaking 
in  a  general  way  of  South  America,  and  not  of  all  the 
republics  or  of  all  office  holders  as  corrupt.  There  are 
honest  and  patriotic  men  in  public  office,  especially  in 


306  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


the  higher  posts,  but  South  Americans  themselves  will 
be  the  first  to  assert  that  many  most  of  their  officials, 
are  venal  and  have  their  hands  conveniently  behind  their 
backs  at  all  times  for  a  bribe. 

There  is  no  doubt  a  great  difference  between  Colombia 
and  Argentina,  between  Venezuela  and  Brazil,  in  the 
purity  and  efficiency  of  their  governments,  and  all  South 
America  cannot  be  included  under  the  same  condemna¬ 
tion,  any  more  than  all  the  United  States  can  be  held  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  unspeakable  rascalities  of  Tammany 
Hall  or  the  Philadelphia  Bing. 

Another  characteristic  of  South  American  republics, 
speaking  in  a  general  way,  is  the  loose  idea  of  allegiance 
to  the  central  government  and  the  frequent  conflicts  be¬ 
tween  certain  states  or  cities  and  the  central  authority, 
resulting  in  occasional,  in  some  states  almost  innumerable 
revolutions.  In  Argentina,  for  instance,  the  so-called 
“  Unitarians,”  and  the  Federalists  were  almost  constantly 
at  war  for  more  than  half  a  century,  and  in  other  repub¬ 
lics  the  same  fight  has  been  waged  under  various  names. 
This  conflict  is  not  merely  a  struggle  of  the  Outs  and  Ins 
for  the  spoils  of  office,  as  the  superficial  observer  might 
suppose,  though  doubtless  much  of  this  spirit  enters  in; 
but  is  really  a  difference  of  political  principles  in  regard 
to  states’  right,  of  the  same  sort  that  divided  the  north 
from  the  south,  and  still,  to  a  degree,  enters  into  the  dif¬ 
ferences  of  the  democratic  and  republican  parties. 

In  his  illuminating  book  on  the  South  American  Re¬ 
publics,  Mr.  Thomas  C.  Dawson  traces  these  fundamental 
differences  and  consequent  revolutions  far  back  to  the 
qualities  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  mind  molded  in 
the  earliest  days  of  those  monarchies.  “Town  or  com¬ 
munal  government  has  been  characteristic  of  Spain,”  he 
says,  1 1  since  before  the  Roman  conquest.  ...  In  the 
midst  of  the  currents  of  war  and  victory  setting  to  and 


POLITICS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA 


307 


fro,  the  old  municipalities  survived  unchangeable,  and 
always  supplying  local  self-government.  A  tendency  to¬ 
wards  decentralization  was  ingrained  in  the  Spanish 
people  from  the  earliest  times.  .  .  .  The  death  of  a 

king  or  the  marriage  of  his  daughter  was  often  the  signal 
for  war,  and  a  readjustment  of  boundaries,  but  these 
overturnings  did  not  much  affect  the  component  and 
really  vital  political  units.  .  .  .  Colonies  founded  by 

a  monarchy  so  organized  could  never  be  firmly  knit  to 
each  other  nor  to  the  mother  country.  The  only  bond  of 
union  would  be  personal  allegiance  to  the  monarch. 1  9 

A  remembrance  of  these  facts  accounts  for  much  that 
seems  unstable,  erratic  and  even  unaccountable  in  these 
South  American  republics  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  and 
we  see  that  all  these  revolutions  and  counter  revolutions 
which  for  a  century  have  been  seething  in  the  southern 
half  of  America,  making  the  countries  seem  oftentimes 
like  opera-bouffe  republics,  is  really  the  irrepressible  con¬ 
flict  between  local  rights  and  centralized  national  power, 
and  is  the  necessary  prelude  to  national  consciousness  and 
stability. 

It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  in  considering  the  politics 
of  South  America,  as  compared  with  North  America, 
that  religion  has  been  a  deciding  factor, — the  religion  of 
the  mother  lands.  As  the  Brazilian  Journal  well  puts  it : 
“Great  Britain  bequeathed  to  her  North  American 
colonies  liberty  of  conscience  and  action  ;  education  of  the 
people,  pure  Christian  family  life,  morality,  woman  ele¬ 
vated  and  respected  ;  a  deep  rooted  religious  sense  and  a 
strong  conviction  of  individual  responsibility  ;  happiness 
and  prosperity. 

“The  heritage  which  Spain  and  Portugal  left  their 
South  American  colonies  under  papal  rule,  was  priestly 
tyranny  and  corruption,  ignorance  of  the  masses  and  il¬ 
legitimacy  ;  defective  morality,  superstition,  bigotry  or 


308  THE  CONTINENT  OF  GPPOBTUNITY 


open  unbelief ;  external  forms  of  religion  degenerated  into 
downright  idolatry  j  chronic  revolutions  and  bank¬ 
ruptcy.” 

Many  intelligent  South  Americans  in  all  the  countries 
whom  I  have  met  would  endorse  these  strong  words,  and 
say  that  the  religion  of  the  respective  halves  of  America 
has  had  not  a  little  to  do  with  the  development  of  her 
politics. 

Another  blessing  which  North  America  often  fails  to 
appreciate,  but  which  South  America  never  knew,  was 
the  New  England  town  meeting.  Though  the  Spanish 
communities  had  a  town  or  communal  government,  the 
common  people  had  little  to  do  with  it,  and  left  it  to  the 
junta,  often  self-elected  to  run.  They  knew  nothing  of 
free  discussion,  unlimited  expression  of  opinion,  and  fear¬ 
less  settlement  of  all  questions  at  the  polls  by  a  majority 
vote. 

This  institution,  which  more  than  any  other  one  estab¬ 
lished  republicanism  throughout  the  United  States,  and 
which,  journeying  west  with  the  movement  of  population, 
made  democratic  principles  sure  and  educated  the  people 
in  their  use,  was  not  indigenous  to  South  American  soil, 
and  there  has  been  no  educative  influence  like  it  to 
prepare  the  way  for  republicanism  south  of  the 
Isthmus. 

But  the  hopeful  and  cheering  thing  to  remember  is  that 
all  these  republics  with  two  or  three  exceptions  are  front¬ 
ing  in  the  right  direction.  Their  faces  are  towards  the 
sunrise  and  not  the  sunset.  They  are  leaving  anarchy, 
petty  squabbling  and  misrule  behind,  and  are  advancing 
towards  a  stable,  responsible  government  based  more  and 
more  upon  the  will  of  the  people. 

True  republicanism  is  growing  stronger  with  every 
decade  except  in  the  northern  countries  of  Venezuela  and 
Colombia,  and  possibly  Ecuador.  Monarchy  has  abso- 


POLITICS  OF  SOUTH  AMEKICA 


309 


lutely  no  chance  of  imposing  its  chains  on  South  America 
again. 

While  I  was  in  Brazil,  a  grandson  of  the  last  Emperor, 
Pedro  II,  came  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  capital  of  his  grand¬ 
father’ s  old  domain,  but  he  was  not  allowed  to  land.  Yet 
the  refusal  created  no  excitement,  and  aroused  no  mon¬ 
archical  reaction,  but  was  regarded  by  all  as  a  sensible 
and  prudent  action  on  the  part  of  the  government  and 
largely  in  the  interests  of  the  young  prince  himself,  who 
might  have  fared  hardly  at  the  hands  of  fanatical  repub¬ 
licans. 

There  has  been  no  important  revolution  in  any  influen¬ 
tial  republic  for  several  years,  and  Brazil  and  Argentina, 
Chile  and  Peru  and  Bolivia  seem  to  have  a  government 
almost  as  stable  as  France  or  the  United  States.  If  a 
revolution  should  occur  in  any  of  these  countries,  it  would 
probably  be  largely  a  bloodless  one,  and  would  mean  the 
accession  to  power  of  some  rival  faction  of  the  govern¬ 
ment  by  irregular  means. 

The  hopeful  thing  to  note  about  South  American  poli¬ 
tics,  as  I  have  said,  is  that  they  are  on  the  up  grade  in 
most  of  the  states.  They  are  still  venal  and  shamelessly 
corrupt  in  many  departments  of  many  states,  if  all  re¬ 
ports  are  to  be  believed,  and  most  unstable  and  rickety 
in  others,  but,  compared  with  the  state  of  things  half  a 
century  or  even  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  there  has  been 
a  vast  improvement. 

Anarchy  is  giving  way  to  order,  bloody  revolutions  are 
replaced  by  peaceful  revolutions,  even  where  free  and  fair 
elections  are  not  held,  and  honesty  is  coming  to  be  con¬ 
sidered  a  prerequisite  for  the  highest  offices  in  all  the  en¬ 
lightened  states. 

As  a  famous  old  professor  of  theology  used  to  say  to 
his  students :  “It  makes  a  vast  difference  which  way  a 
man  is  facing.  Two  men  may  be  upon  the  same  spot  on 


310  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


the  hill,  one  facing  up  the  hill,  and  the  other  down,  but 
the  man  going  up  has  a  much  better  chance  of  reaching 
the  top  than  the  one  going  down.” 

The  South  American  republics  for  the  most  part  are 
facing  up  the  hill,  so  difficult  to  climb,  of  an  honest  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people. 
May  they  all  succeed  in  reaching  the  top. 


SOUTH  AMERICA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD 


A  Legitimate  Mission  Field— Catholicism  in  North  and  South  America — 
The  Brave  Jesuits — The  Corrupt  Priesthood  of  To-day — Caring  for 
Foundlings — “  A  Letter  of  Jesus  Christ  ” — St.  Peter’s  Toe — Men  in 
Protestant  Churches — Catholic  Missionaries  in  Protestant  Lands— 
The  Reproof  of  the  Bishop  of  Cochabamba — The  Hopeful  Side — The 
United  States  a  South  American  Power. 

SOME  people  are  found  who  deny  that  South 
America  is  a  legitimate  mission  field  for  Protes¬ 
tant  effort.  They  say  that  the  country  is  already 
practically  evangelized.  That  the  first  Spanish  discover¬ 
ers  brought  the  Christian  religion  with  them,  that  it  has 
spread  throughout  the  continent,  and  that  Protestant 
Boards  of  missions  should  turn  their  attention  to  other 
quarters  of  the  globe.  There  is  even  an  English  Protes¬ 
tant  church  in  South  America  which  has  been  unwilling 
that  its  building  should  be  used  for  any  native  Protes¬ 
tant  gathering,  or  for  any  missionary  purpose,  lest  it 
should  offend  the  susceptibilities  of  the  Catholics,  and 
possibly  lead  to  a  loss  of  their  trade  on  the  part  of  the 
Protestant  merchants. 

I  scarcely  think  that  this  last  is  an  uncharitable  sug¬ 
gestion,  from  what  I  know  of  this  church.  A  few  facts 
will  however  show  that  South  America  is  one  of  the 
most  legitimate  fields  for  Protestant  missionary  effort  in 
the  world. 

In  the  first  place,  the  condition  of  the  Catholic  church 
of  South  America  shows  the  need  of  some  vivifying  re¬ 
ligious  influence.  The  Roman  Catholic  church  of  South 

311 


312  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


America  is  as  different  from  tlie  same  church  in  North 
America  as  Spain  is  different  from  New  England.  In 
South  America  it  is  still  in  the  darkness  and  corruption 
of  the  middle  ages.  In  North  America  it  has  been 
leavened  by  hundreds  of  years  of  contact  with  an  enlight¬ 
ened  progressive  Protestantism. 

I  am  not  one  of  those  who  would  berate  and  deride 
Roman  Catholicism.  I  regret  sincerely  the  tendency  of 
some  of  my  brethren  to  magnify  all  the  defects  and  short¬ 
comings  of  the  Catholic  church  and  to  harp  upon  her 
present  evils  and  her  early  history  of  persecution.  I 
recognize  the  true  Christianity  and  spotless  character  of 
many  in  the  church  of  Rome,  and  the  heroism  of  her 
pioneers,  especially  the  early  Jesuits,  whose  self-sacrific¬ 
ing  piety  has  never  been  surpassed  in  the  annals  of 
Protestantism. 

In  fact,  the  story  of  Jesuit  occupation  of  South  America 
as  well  as  North  America,  abounds  in  heroic  incidents. 
There  is  scarcely  a  nobler  figure  in  history  than  that  of 
Padre  Jos6  de  Anchieta,  a  follower  of  Francis  Xavier, 
and  a  man  of  like  spirit,  who  established  himself  in  Sao 
Paulo  and  as  one  of  its  founders  doubtless  did  much  to 
make  that  the  most  progressive  state  in  Brazil.  A  frag¬ 
ment  from  his  own  story  best  tells  his  character. 
“  Here  we  are,”  he  says,  4 4  sometimes  more  than  twenty 
of  us  together  in  a  little  hut  of  mud  and  wicker,  roofed 
with  straw,  fourteen  paces  long  and  ten  wide.  This  is  at 
once  the  school,  the  infirmary,  dormitory,  refectory, 
kitchen  and  storeroom.  Yet  we  covet  not  the  more 
spacious  dwellings  which  our  brethren  have  in  other 
parts.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  in  a  far  straiter  place 
when  it  was  His  pleasure  to  be  born  among  beasts  in  a 
manger,  and  in  a  still  straiter  when  He  deigned  to  die 
upon  the  cross.” 

Yet  when  it  is  admitted  that  there  were  such  heroes 


SOUTH  AMERICA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD  313 


in  the  early  days  of  the  Catholic  church  of  South  America, 
and  that  there  are  still  pure  and  earnest  souls,  both 
among  the  laity  and  the  priesthood,  it  is  also  admitted 
by  all,  even  by  intelligent  Catholics,  themselves,  that  in 
South  America  the  church  is  decadent  and  corrupt.  The 
immorality  of  the  priests  is  taken  for  granted.  Priests’ 
sons  and  daughters,  of  course  born  not  in  wedlock, 
abound  everywhere,  and  no  stigma  attaches  to  them  or 
to  their  fathers  and  mothers.  In  fact  it  is  scarcely  con¬ 
sidered  immorality,  for  as  the  priests  are  forbidden  to 
marry,  it  is  expected  that  they  will  have  illegitimate  re¬ 
lations  with  one  or  more  women. 

A  number  of  South  American  prelates  petitioned  Pope 
Leo  XIII  a  few  years  ago,  on  account  of  frequent 
scandals,  to  allow  South  American  priests  to  marry,  but 
the  Pope  would  not  hear  to  it,  and  the  old  scandals 
(scandals  chiefly  in  the  eyes  of  the  Protestant  communi¬ 
ties)  go  on  and  increase. 

Like  priest  like  people.  The  immorality  of  the  priests 
is  doubtless  one  reason  for  the  looseness  of  the  family  tie 
in  all  parts  of  South  America.  While  divorces  are  not 
allowed  for  any  cause,  separations  and  illegal  alliances 
are  very  easy  and  very  common.  Every  large  city  has 
public  orphan  asylums  where  babies  are  thrust  in  and  no 
questions  asked.  In  fact,  every  convenience  is  arranged 
to  prevent  the  recognition  of  the  parents.  A  kind  of 
three  quarter  barrel  is  fixed  in  the  door  with  the  side  to¬ 
wards  the  street  cut  half  way  down.  In  this  the  found¬ 
ling  is  placed,  a  bell  is  rung,  and  the  attendant  of  the 
foundling  house  comes,  turns  the  barrel  around,  and 
takes  out  the  baby,  while  it  is  purposely  made  impossible 
for  him  or  any  one  else  to  see  who  left  the  child  for  the 
state  to  provide  for.  In  the  small  city  of  Arequipa  forty 
children  every  month  are  thus  left  at  the  public  foundling 
houses.  Some  such  arrangement,  varying  only  in  detail, 


314  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


is  provided  in  every  large  city  of  South  America,  and 
cannot  but  promote  immorality  and  illegitimacy.  A 
considerable  percentage  of  these  foundlings  are  said  to  be 
children  of  the  priests.  Surely  to  introduce  a  purer  code 
of  morality  and  a  higher  standard  of  living,  Protestant¬ 
ism  is  necessary  in  South  America. 

Gross  superstition  is  still  cultivated  assiduously  by  the 
Catholic  church  in  many  parts  of  South  America,  and  it 
is  unrebuked  tacitly  or  openly  by  any  large  reform  ele¬ 
ment. 

Mr.  Lewis  T.  A.  Peters,  a  Protestant  printer  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  has  given  me  a  translation  of  a  Roman  Catholic 
tract  which  was  recently  handed  him  on  the  street  of  the 
capital  of  Argentina  near  one  of  the  leading  churches.  I 
have  room  for  but  a  small  portion  of  the  translation 
which  I  am  assured  has  been  carefully  and  accurately 
made.  It  is  entitled,  “  Letter  of  Jesus  Christ  about  the 
Drops  of  Blood  which  He  shed  whilst  He  went  to  Cal¬ 
vary.”  The  letter,  says  the  tract,  was  found  in  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  and  is  preserved  in  a  silver  casket  by  His 
Holiness.  The  letter  says  :  u  You  know  that  the  armed 
soldiers  numbered  150,  twenty-five  of  whom  conducted 
me  bound ;  the  administrators  of  justice  numbered  thirty- 
three.  I  received  fifty  blows  with  the  fist  on  the  head, 
and  108  on  the  breast.  I  was  pulled  by  the  hair  twenty- 
three  times,  and  thirty  persons  spat  on  my  face.  Those 
who  struck  me  on  the  upper  part  of  the  body  were  6,666 
and  100  Jews  struck  me  on  the  head.  I  was  put  upon 
the  cross  at  the  eighteenth  hour,  and  at  the  same  time  I 
sighed  125  times.  The  wounds  on  the  head  numbered 
twenty  ;  from  the  crown  of  thorns  seventy -two  ;  points  of 
thorns  on  the  forehead,  100.  After  flogging  they  dressed 
me  as  a  fool  in  a  white  garment,  the  wounds  on  the  body 
were  100.  .  .  .  There  came  out  of  my  body  28,430 

drops  of  blood. 


THE  ALTAR  AT  THE  DOORWAY  OF  THE  JESUIT  AN  INDIAN  ALCALDE  AWAY  IN  THE  SIERRAS. 

CHURCH,  AREQUIRA,  PERU. 


SOUTH  AMERICA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD  315 


“The  person  who  says  seven  Padre  Nuestros ,  seven  Ave 
Marias  and  nine  Gloria  Patras ,  for  the  space  of  fifteen  years, 
to  pay  for  the  number  of  drops  of  blood  I  have  shed,  I  will 
aportion  five  Gracias.  The  first,  plenary  indulgence  from 
all  sins  ;  the  second  he  will  be  liberated  from  all  the  pains 
of  purgatory  ;  third,  if  he  should  die  before  finishing  the 
fifteen  years  he  will  be  pardoned  ;  fourth,  he  shall  be  re¬ 
garded  as  though  he  had  been  killed  and  had  shed  all  his 
blood  for  the  holy  faith  ;  I  will  come  down  from  heaven 
to  look  for  his  soul  and  those  of  his  relations  to  the  fourth 
grade.7’ 

That  such  sacrilegious  foolishness  is  circulated  in  the 
chief  city  of  South  America,  and  believed  by  the  masses, 
however  deluded,  seems  incredible,  were  it  not  of  a  piece 
with  much  that  one  sees  in  the  churches  and  other  sacred 
places  of  South  America.  I  have  myself  seen  indulgence 
for  sin  and  a  promise  of  heaven  offered  to  those  who  will 
kiss  the  toe  of  a  bronze  statue  of  St.  Peter  in  a  South 
American  church,  a  small  reduplication  of  the  great 
statue  in  St.  Peter’s  at  Rome,  and  am  assured  that  similar 
notices  are  very  common. 

Need  anything  else  be  quoted  to  show  the  superstition 
that  is  encouraged  in  South  America  to-day,  or  the  need 
of  the  enlightening  influences  of  a  purer  faith  ?  If  Prot¬ 
estantism  never  made  one  convert  from  Catholicism,  it  is 
needed  in  South  America  to  show  what  pure,  unadulter¬ 
ated  religion  really  is. 

Indeed,  its  chief  work  is  not  to  proselytize  from  the 
Roman  Catholic  church,  but  to  afford  a  rational  faith  for 
those  who  have  left  the  Roman  church  and  are  drifting 
or  have  drifted  into  the  worst  of  all  spiritual  deserts,  the 
cold  and  barren  regions  of  absolute  unbelief.  It  cannot 
be  said  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  of 
South  America  are  Roman  Catholics.  Most  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  to  be  sure,  are  baptized,  and  buried,  by  a  priest,  but 


316  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


those  are  the  only  occasions  when  many  have  any  nse  for 
him.  The  churches  are  full  of  women  and  empty  of  men. 
I  have  been  in  churches  where  I  have  seen  hundreds  of 
women  worshippers,  and  when  I,  a  heretic,  in  their  esti¬ 
mation,  was  the  only  man  within  its  walls. 

The  unbelief  of  the  men  or  their  utter  indifference  to 
spiritual  things,  is  the  greatest  peril  of  South  America, 
and  if  Protestantism  can  do  anything  to  avert  this  peril 
and  stem  this  tide  of  indifferentism,  it  is  in  duty  bound  to 
do  it.  That  the  Protestant  churches  do  reach  the  men  is 
evident  to  the  most  casual  observer.  Their  predominance 
is  as  striking  in  the  meetings  of  the  Protestants  as  the 
preponderance  of  the  women  in  the  Catholic  churches.  I 
have  counted  more  than  fifty  men  and  only  two  or  three 
women  in  little  Protestant  chapels  of  Peru  and  Bolivia, 
and  even  in  Argentina  and  Brazil  where  Protestantism 
has  been  longer  established,  and  is  better  known,  and 
consequently  where  the  women  dare  to  attend  the  services, 
the  majority  of  the  congregation  are  men.  At  scores  of 
Christian  Endeavour  meetings  in  half  a  dozen  republics, 
I  have  noticed  this  disparity  of  women  so  unusual  at 
home. 

Once  more,  if  any  further  reasons  are  demanded  for  the 
peaceful  invasion  of  South  America  by  Protestantism, 
it  is  found  in  the  fact  that  Catholics  do  not  hesitate  to 
send  their  missionaries  to  every  Protestant  country. 
America,  England,  Holland,  even  Norway  and  Sweden, 
so  overwhelmingly  Protestant,  are  full  of  them,  and  it  is 
only  right  that  on  a  fair  field  and  without  favour  from 
governmental  authorities,  both  religions  should  have  a 
chance  to  prove  which  is  better  fitted  to  the  needs  of  the 
twentieth  century. 

One  would  think  that  the  Roman  Catholics  themselves 
would  welcome  the  coming  of  a  strong  and  virile  faith 
which  has  done  so  much  to  purify  and  ennoble  their  own 


SOUTH  AMERICA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD  317 


church  in  all  countries  where  Protestantism  is  strong,  for 
they  themselves  being  the  witnesses,  there  is  need  enough 
of  such  purification. 

Some  years  ago  the  Bishop  of  Cochabamba,  Bolivia,  was 
asked  by  a  distinguished  man  to  retain  in  his  office  a  priest 
who  had  been  unfrocked  for  a  very  serious  misdemean¬ 
our.  The  Bishop  while  acceding  to  the  request,  vented 
his  real  opinion  of  the  priests  of  his  district  in  the  follow¬ 
ing  letter  :  “  I  have  done  all  in  my  power  to  pull  them 
out  of  the  cesspool  of  ignorance  and  vice.  .  .  .  They 

are  always  the  same — brutal,  drunken,  seducers  of  inno¬ 
cence,  without  religion  and  without  conscience.  Better 
would  be  the  people  without  them.  .  .  .  The  priests 

of  these  villages  have  no  idea  of  God,  nor  of  the  religion 
of  which  they  are  the  professed  ministers.  They  never 
study.  Their  daily  round  of  life  is  first  to  fill  their  stom¬ 
achs,  then  the  disorders  of  the  bed,  from  these  to  the  tem¬ 
ple  looking  for  more  prey  for  their  horrible  sacrilege,  then 
back  to  laziness,  drunkenness  and  the  awful  disorders  of 
the  bed  again.  You  cannot  imagine  the  pain  these  things 
give  me.  I  am  sick  and  tired  of  it  all.  There  are  excep¬ 
tions,  but  so  very  few  that  they  are  not  enough  to  miti¬ 
gate  the  pain.  (Signed)  Alfonso,  Bishop.” 

Things  have  doubtless  improved  somewhat  in  Bolivia 
since  this  letter  was  written,  but  it  still  describes  the  con¬ 
dition  in  many  parishes  in  the  remoter  regions  of  South 
America,  and  many  like  testimonies  could  be  adduced. 

An  eminent  Protestant  theologian  of  England  likes  to 
tell  his  students  the  remark  of  a  Catholic  Bishop,  a  friend 
of  his,  who  declared  before  the  Ecumenical  Council  that 
pronounced  the  dogma  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope, 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  would  never  allow  the  Council  to 
promulgate  such  a  doctrine.  When  the  Council  was  over, 
and  the  dogma  proclaimed,  the  Protestant  theologian  re¬ 
minded  his  Catholic  friend  of  this  former  statement,  and 


318  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


asked  how  it  happened,  since  the  Holy  Spirit  guided  the 
Council’s  actions.  “  What  can  yon  expect  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  do  with  a  lot  of  South  American  bishops?”  was 
the  quick  reply. 

Enlightened  Catholics  in  other  parts  of  the  world  rec¬ 
ognize  the  degeneracy  of  the  Romish  church  in  South 
America,  and  doubtless  deplore  it  profoundly.  One 
would  think  they  would  welcome  the  purifying  example 
and  emulation  in  righteousness  which  the  growth  of  Prot¬ 
estantism  would  bring. 

As  in  other  aspects  of  affairs  South  American,  there  is 
a  hopeful  side,  so  it  is  in  matters  religious  and  ecclesias¬ 
tical.  There  are  already  signs  in  some  places  that  the 
great  historic  church  of  South  America  is  feeling  the 
vivifying  influences  of  freer  thought,  and  the  larger  out¬ 
look  of  the  twentieth  century.  The  Bible  has  been  widely 
circulated  in  all  the  languages  of  South  America,  and  is 
constantly  winning  its  way  to  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

All  the  republics  except  Peru  have  decreed  full  religious 
liberty,  and  the  President  of  the  Peruvian  republic  him¬ 
self  told  me  that  while  the  constitution  of  Peru  was  illib¬ 
eral,  the  temper  of  the  people  was  very  liberal  to  Prot¬ 
estantism.  And  this  I  found  to  be  true  except  in  such 
bigoted,  priest-ridden  cities  as  Arequipa. 

Surely  the  United  States  has  some  responsibility  in 
sending  a  purer  gospel  to  her  sister  republics  of  the 
southern  hemisphere.  We  are  already  a  South  American 
power  as  Bishop  Neely  in  his  admirable  little  book  re¬ 
minds  us.  Since  we  control  the  Panama  Canal  and  the 
Canal  zone,  five  miles  wide,  in  the  Republic  of  Panama, 
which  is  a  South  American  power,  we  can  no  longer  hold 
ourselves  aloof  from  South  American  affairs,  or  refuse 
our  share  of  responsibility  for  her  welfare. 

In  most  of  the  South  American  countries  the  United 
States  is  honoured  ;  in  all  of  them  she  is  respected,  in 


SOUTH  AMERICA  AS  A  MISSION  FIELD  319 


some  she  is  beloved  as  a  friend,  and,  if  necessary,  as  an 
ally. 

Coveting  no  foot  of  South  American  territory,  but  de¬ 
siring  the  best  good  of  both  Americas,  one  duty  of  North 
America  is  to  send  to  the  South  land  the  best  education, 
the  best  morality,  the  best  religion  which  she  herself 
possesses,  for,  by  thus  giving  freely,  she  herself  will  be 
enriched,  and  the  ideals  of  both  halves  of  the  great 
American  continent  will  be  ennobled. 


XXXIX 


A  BIRD’S-EYE  VIEW  OF  PROTESTANT  MISSIONS 

No  Longer  the  Neglected  Continent — The  Presbyterians  and  Methodists— 
The  Work  of  the  Southern  Baptists — The  South  American  Missionary 
Society — The  Moravians  in  the  North — An  Independent  Congrega¬ 
tional  Church — The  Gospel  Mission  of  Kansas — The  Great  W ork  of 
the  Bible  Societies — The  Bible  in  Brazil— Foreign  Churches — Work 
for  the  Sailors— The  Y.  M.  C.  A. — Christian  Endeavour  Societies. 

THE  scope  and  design  of  this  volume  do  not  ad¬ 
mit  of  any  detailed  account  of  missionary  oper¬ 
ations  in  South  America.  For  such  accounts  I 
must  refer  my  readers  to  Dr.  Brown’s  u  Latin  America,” 
the  little  volume  published  by  the  Student  V olunteer  Move¬ 
ment,  entitled,  1 *  Protestant  Missions  in  South  America,” 
Miss  Guinness’  “  The  Neglected  Continent,”  to  Bev.  H.  C. 
Tucker's  “Bible  in  Brazil,"  and  to  numberless  mission¬ 
ary  reports  and  minutes. 

I  can  only  hope  to  prove,  as  I  enumerate  the  forces  at 
work  for  evangelical  Christianity,  that  South  America  is 
no  longer  preeminently  li  the  Neglected  Continent,”  but 
the  Continent  of  Opportunity  for  Protestant  missions,  as 
well  as  for  all  material  advancement. 

The  American  Presbyterians  and  the  American  Method¬ 
ists  (both  North  and  South)  have  thus  far  been  the 
largest  factors  in  the  evangelization  of  South  America, 
and  the  missions  of  one  or  the  other  of  these  denomina¬ 
tions  are  found  in  every  republic  of  the  continent. 

The  Presbyterians  have  done  and  are  doing  splendid 
work  in  the  northern  republics  of  Colombia  and  Vene¬ 
zuela,  in  Chile  and  especially  in  Brazil,  where  they  have 

320 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS 


321 


long  been  established,  and  have  raised  np  an  efficient  and 
eloquent  native  ministry. 

The  Methodists  have  done  much  of  the  pioneer  educa¬ 
tional  work  in  Peru,  have  recently  established  themselves 
in  Bolivia,  are  strong  in  Chile,  and  especially  so  in 
Argentina  and  Uruguay,  in  which  latter  republic  their 
missions  are  the  only  ones  of  importance. 

My  regret  that  I  cannot  give  more  space  to  the  work  of 
these  greatest  of  factors  in  the  evangelization  of  South 
America,  and  to  other  denominational  missions,  a  work  to 
which  it  would  take  volumes  to  do  justice,  is  tempered 
by  the  fact  that  full  reports  of  these  missions  can  be  ob¬ 
tained  at  their  respective  denominational  headquarters. 
Other  agencies  not  so  well  known,  must  be  accorded  a 
place  in  any  account,  however  brief,  of  missionary  enter¬ 
prise  in  South  America. 

In  Brazil  the  Southern  Methodist  Church  has  taken 
over  the  work  begun  by  the  Northern  Methodists,  and 
their  schools  and  churches  are  powerful  factors  in  the 
making  of  a  new  Brazil. 

The  Southern  Baptists  of  the  United  States  also  have  a 
strong  and  fruitful  work  in  Brazil,  and  are  beginning  in 
Argentina  with  large  hopes  of  success.  In  this  republic, 
too,  a  beginning  has  been  made  by  the  Disciples  of 
Christ,  while  the  Canadian  Baptists  have  a  mission  in 
needy  Bolivia.  For  a  time  they  were  established  in  La 
Paz,  the  capital  of  Bolivia,  but  the  illness  or  death  of 
their  missionaries  obliged  them  to  withdraw  for  a  time, 
during  which  the  Methodists  occupied  this  field,  though 
the  Baptists  still  hold  the  fort  at  Oruro,  an  important  city 
in  Southern  Bolivia. 

The  work  of  the  South  American  Missionary  Society  of 
the  Church  of  England  is  an  interesting  and  important 
one,  and  is  the  oldest  continuous  mission  of  all,  except 
that  of  the  Moravians,  having  celebrated  its  sixtieth  an- 


322  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPOBTUNITY 


niversary  in  1904.  It  was  baptized  in  suffering  and 
martyrdom,  for  Captain  Allen  F.  Gardiner,  of  the  Boyal 
Navy,  one  of  the  heroes  of  missionary  annals  of  all  the 
centuries,  was  the  founder  of  this  society.  He  died  of 
starvation  at  Spaniard  Harbour,  Terra  del  Fuego,  in  Sep¬ 
tember,  1851. 

The  field  in  the  extreme  south  so  early  occupied  by 
these  heroic  missionaries,  is  still  manned  by  them,  but 
the  Indians  in  these  parts  are  a  fast  disappearing  race, 
killed  off  by  the  rum  and  licentiousness  of  civilization  (?) 
and  the  society  has  extended  its  field  to  embrace  the 
Araucanian  Indians,  a  strong  and  warlike  race  in  South¬ 
ern  Chile,  and  the  Indians  of  the  Paraguayan  Chaco — that 
is  the  western  portion  of  the  Bepublic  of  Paraguay, 
which  is  for  the  most  part  a  vast  plain  covered  with  palm 
forests  and  sparsely  peopled. 

The  11  Begions  Beyond  Mission,”  established  by  Dr. 
Guinness  of  London,  is  another  important  element  in  the 
evangelization  of  South  America,  especially  among  the 
Incas  of  Peru,  for  whom  the  younger  Dr.  Guinness  is 
about  to  make  a  new  and  special  effort,  purchasing  a 
great  hacienda  or  farm,  ten  miles  in  extent,  where  the 
Indians  may  live  free  from  the  cruel  exactions  of  their 
taskmasters,  who  have  reduced  them  almost  to  a  state  of 
slavery,  and  where  they  may  be  at  the  same  time  under 
Christian  influences. 

The  oldest  and  one  of  the  most  important  missions  in 
South  America  is  that  of  the  Moravians  in  British  and 
Dutch  Guiana.  Indeed,  this  denomination,  famed  for  its 
missionary  spirit,  and  for  seeking  out  the  hardest  fields, 
established  these  stations  long  before  the  reputed  birth  of 
modern  missions  in  England  or  America, — long  before 
William  Carey  left  the  shoemaker’s  bench  for  India,  or 
the  devoted  students  gathered  under  the  haystack  at 
Williamstown.  In  1738  the  Moravians  began  their  mis- 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS 


323 


sion  in  British  Guiana,  and  in  1739  in  Dutch  Guiana, 
and  in  their  churches  they  number  more  communicants 
to-day  than  any  one  missionary  society  in  South  America. 

An  important  development  in  the  religious  life  of 
South  America  was  the  planting  of  an  independent  Con¬ 
gregational  church  in  Rio  de  Janeiro  by  Dr.  Kelley,  a 
Scotchman,  in  1855.  This  church  has  a  vigorous  and 
influential  life  to-day,  while  from  it  have  sprung  several 
other  independent  churches  in  different  parts  of  Brazil, 
and  a  missionary  society  called  “Help  for  Brazil,”  which 
has  several  missionaries  and  occupies  five  or  six  stations. 

An  interesting  feature  of  these  Congregational  churches 
is  that  they  are  thoroughly  Brazilian  in  their  member¬ 
ship,  their  pastors  and  their  support.  Dr.  Kelley  went 
back  to  Scotland  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  leaving  his 
church  in  the  hands  of  a  native  pastor,  and  from  that 
day  no  help  has  come  from  foreign  sources,  and  no  con¬ 
nection  is  maintained  with  churches  in  other  lands. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  no  lack  of  missionary 
societies  at  work  in  South  America.  In  fact,  when  one 
enumerates  them  all,  he  finds  that  there  are  no  less  than 
thirty-seven,  some  of  which,  to  be  sure,  are  very  small, 
but  all  of  which  are  doing  something  for  the  evangeliza¬ 
tion  of  the  Continent  of  Opportunity,  though  I  regret  to 
say  that  the  object  of  one  or  two  seems  chiefly  to  capture 
the  converts  made  by  other  missions. 

We  must  not  forget  the  independent  workers,  like 
Rev.  J.  S.  Watson  of  Lima,  and  Rev.  J.  L.  Jarrett  of 
Arequipa,  who  have  laboured  long  and  successfully  and 
largely  at  their  own  charges,  supporting  themselves  by 
teaching  or  in  other  ways  as  opportunity  offered  ;  making 
it  their  first  business,  however,  like  William  Carey,  to 
preach  the  gospel,  while  they  did  these  “other  things 
to  pay  expenses.”  Their  churches  have  recently  joined 
“The  Regions  Beyond  Mission.” 


324  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


The  State  of  Kansas  has  the  honour  of  having  a  South 
American  mission  of  its  own.  “The  Gospel  Mission  of 
Kansas,”  with  its  headquarters  at  Kansas  City,  Kansas, 
supports  Rev.  William  Reed  in  Ecuador,  one  of  the  few 
workers  in  the  forest  region  of  Northern  South  America  ; 
Mr.  Detweiler  of  Quito  is  another  independent  missionary 
whose  work  should  not  be  overlooked. 

Among  the  agencies  for  the  spread  of  pure  Christianity 
in  South  America,  none  has  been  blessed  of  Providence 
more  than  the  Bible  Societies,  both  the  American  and 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  societies.  For  many  years 
the  colporteurs  of  these  societies  have  gone  up  and  down 
throughout  South  America,  on  railroad  trains  and  coach, 
on  mule  back  and  on  foot,  following  up  the  great  rivers 
in  dugout  canoes,  receiving  often  insults  and  contumely, 
and  sometimes  stones,  cabbages  or  potatoes  not  presented, 
but  thrown  at  their  heads  as  a  reward  of  their  self-sacri¬ 
ficing  work. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  typical  scene  in  Peru,  new  and 
strange  to  me,  but  common  enough  to  all  colporteurs, 
that  I  witnessed  at  a  little  railway  station.  My  friend, 
the  Bible  agent,  dismounted  from  the  train,  unpacked  his 
bundle  of  Bibles  and  portions  of  the  Bible,  unstrapped 
his  baby  organ,  and  sitting  down  in  the  midst  of  the  filth 
and  flies,  began  to  play  some  gospel  tunes.  Quickly  the 
people  gathered  around  him,  the  railroad  hands,  the 
fruit  sellers,  old  hags  dishevelled  and  half  naked,  and 
little  children  alike.  He  had  not  played  one  tune  half 
through  before  he  had  an  audience,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
tune  the  sale  began.  No  Bibles  were  given  away,  for  it 
was  not  necessary.  The  people  are  willing  to  buy,  espe¬ 
cially  the  small  portions,  containing  a  single  gospel,  which 
could  be  had  for  the  equivalent  of  a  penny.  When  trade 
became  slack,  another  tune  on  the  baby  organ  would 
bring  the  people  back  and  the  sales  would  go  on  once 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS 


325 


more,  while  the  colporteur  all  the  time  he  sold  the  Word, 
explained  its  value  and  importance  to  willing  ears. 

Such  scenes  have  been  going  on  all  over  South  America 
for  many  year’s,  in  the  most  populous  cities,  as  well  as  in 
the  most  remote  forests,  and  the  gospel  leaven  which  has 
thus  been  disseminated  is  beyond  calculation.  I  rejoice 
to  number  among  the  friends  whom  I  made  on  my  jour¬ 
ney,  such,  men  as  Rev.  A.  R.  Stark  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  of  Callao,  Rev.  Mr.  Milne,  the 
veteran  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  recently  deceased,  Rev.  J.  H.  W enburg  of  La  Paz, 
Rev.  Mr.  Pilling  of  Santiago,  and  Rev.  H.  C.  Tucker  of 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  in  whose  hospitable  home  I  found  a 
delightful  temporary  abode  while  in  the  capital  of  Brazil. 

If  one  desires  a  book  beside  which  most  novels  are 
dull,  which  abounds  in  information  concerning  the 
country  as  well  as  in  regard  to  the  Scripture  in  Brazil, 
let  him  get  11  The  Bible  in  Brazil,”  1  by  this  same  accom¬ 
plished  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  Rev.  H.  C. 
Tucker. 

There  are  various  foreign  Protestant  churches  in  South 
America,  which  must  also  be  numbered  among  the  evan¬ 
gelistic  agencies.  In  Valparaiso,  Chile,  the  Union  church 
under  the  lead  of  Rev.  W.  B.  Inglis,  is  doing  an  admirable 
work  as  is  also  the  Union  church  of  Santiago,  of  which 
Ur.  Lester  is  the  much  esteemed  pastor.  In  Buenos  Ayres 
are  several  English  speaking  churches,  an  American 
church  (made  up  largely  of  English  and  Scotch  people) 
whose  pastor  has  long  been  the  genial  and  beloved  Dr. 
McLaughlin,  and  a  Scotch  church,  worshipping  in  a 
beautiful  and  stately  edifice,  to  which  Rev.  J.  W.  Flem¬ 
ing,  B.  D. ,  has  ministered  with  great  acceptance  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

1  “The  Bible  in  Brazil, ”  by  Rev.  H.  C.  Tucker,  New  York,  Flem¬ 
ing  H.  Revell  Company. 


326  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Buenos  Ayres,  too,  is  the  residence  of  Bishop  Every, 
the  Bishop  of  the  Falkland  Islands,  whose  diocese  is 
perhaps  the  largest  in  the  world,  embracing  nearly  the 
whole  of  South  America  on  both  the  East  and  West 
coasts.  There  is  a  movement,  however,  to  divide  this 
unwieldy  diocese,  making  the  Andes  the  natural  dividing 
line. 

Under  Bishop  Every’ s  jurisdiction  are  a  number  of  im¬ 
portant  churches  in  the  large  centres  of  population,  which 
minister  to  the  Anglicans  who  abound  in  all  these  cen¬ 
tres.  The  rector  of  one  of  these,  the  church  at  Sao  Paulo, 
Brazil,  is  Rev.  H.  C.  Macartney,  so  well  known  for  his 
writings  and  for  his  work  in  connection  with  the  Keswick 
movement. 

In  Rio  is  an  English  church,  and  a  Methodist  church, 
which  maintains  a  weekly  English  service,  and  in  many 
parts  of  Brazil  where  Germans  abound,  Lutheran  churches 
have  been  established,  to  look  after  the  flock  that  has 
wandered  so  far  from  the  Fatherland. 

Work  for  the  sailors  has  not  been  neglected  in  South 
America,  and  Sailors’  Homes  or  Bethels  are  found  in 
most  of  the  large  seaports.  The  Victoria  Sailors’  Home 
in  Buenos  Ayres  occupies  large  and  substantial  quarters, 
and  has  an  able  superintendent  in  Mr.  H.  F.  Fellows.  A 
similar  institution  at  Santos  is  presided  over  by  Mr. 
Fitzgerald  Holmes,  and  the  New  Central  Mission  in  Rio, 
established  by  Rev.  H.  C.  Tucker,  and  ministered  to  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Kennedy  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Mission 
(South)  is  doing  much  for  the  sailors  as  well  as  for  the 
neglected  classes  of  this  great  seaport. 

The  vast  importance  of  the  Protestant  Christian  schools 
in  South  America  is  touched  upon  in  another  chapter. 

Most  of  the  missionary  organizations  make  use  of  the 
printing  press  in  the  publication  of  papers  and  tracts  in 
Spanish  or  Portuguese  or  the  Indian  languages,  and  in 


PKOTESTANT  MISSIONS 


327 


furnishing  abundant  literature  in  English  for  the  infor¬ 
mation  of  friends  at  home.  At  least  one  organization, 
the  Victoria  Gospel  Press  of  Buenos  Ayres,  is  chiefly  a 
printing  establishment  for  the  dissemination  of  the  gospel 
in  print  in  South  America,  and  for  arousing  interest  in 
South  America  in  English  speaking  lands. 

The  Salvation  Army  is  also  established  in  several  large 
cities  of  the  continent,  and  is  doing  its  usual  benevolent 
and  evangelistic  work. 

There  are  at  present  but  five  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Associations  in  South  America,  but  where  they  exist, 
there  are  no  more  useful  agencies  in  all  the  continent. 
They  are  all  manned  by  young  men  from  the  United 
States.  The  Association  in  Buenos  Ayres,  under  the  care 
of  Mr.  B.  F.  Shuman  and  his  associates,  is  about  to  erect 
a  fine  building  for  which  $100,000  has  been  raised  in  that 
city,  and  another  $100,000  has  been  given  by  a  friend  in 
the  United  States.  It  is  already  a  great  power  for  good 
in  the  city,  and  will  do  far  more  with  its  larger  equip¬ 
ment  in  the  future. 

In  Bio,  Mr.  Myron  A.  Clark  with  comparatively  small 
funds  at  his  disposal  has  accomplished  an  admirable  work 
for  Brazilian  young  men,  and  the  evening  classes,  gym¬ 
nasium,  reading  room  and  religious  meetings  are  all  well 
attended  and  greatly  appreciated.  Mr.  Clark  has  the 
unique  distinction  of  being  the  best  interpreter  in  Brazil 
of  English  into  Portuguese,  and  I  can  testify  to  his  ex¬ 
traordinary  skill  as  he  has  stood  by  my  side  at  more  than 
thirty  different  meetings,  never  at  loss  for  the  right  word, 
and  never  failing  to  put  spirit  and  enthusiasm  into  his 
translation, — the  sure  test  of  a  good  interpreter. 

The  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  has  made 
a  good  beginning  in  Buenos  Ayres  under  the  lead  of  an 
admirable  secretary,  Miss  Batty,  an  American  young 
lady. 


328  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


Last,  but  I  hope  by  no  means  least  in  the  evangelization 
of  South  America,  is  the  work  of  the  Christian  Endeavour 
societies.  Of  course  the  churches  in  South  America,  as 
in  North  America,  have  their  organizations  within  them¬ 
selves,  like  the  Sunday-school,  Mission  Circles,  Ladies’ 
Aid  Societies,  etc.,  but  it  seems  fair  to  give  a  paragraph 
to  the  Christian  Endeavour  societies  since  they  are  inter¬ 
denominational  and  international  in  their  character,  and 
their  unions,  state  and  national,  have  a  distinct  life  of 
their  own. 

The  society  is  represented  in  every  country  in  South 
America,  except  where  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
like  Uruguay,  is  the  only  Protestant  missionary  force. 
In  British  and  Dutch  Guiana,  in  Chile  and  in  Brazil,  it 
is  well  represented,  and  in  Peru,  Argentina,  and  Colom¬ 
bia  and  Panama,  a  good  beginning  has  been  made.  Its 
work  among  the  Araucanian  Indians  has  been  especially 
commended. 

Counting  the  societies  in  Trinidad,  which  really  be¬ 
longs  to  South  America,  there  are  at  the  present  writing 
about  150  societies,  and  the  number  is  constantly  increas¬ 
ing.  In  Brazil  is  by  far  the  largest  number  of  societies, 
and  great  credit  is  due  to  Dr.  Eliezer  dos  Sanctos  Saraiva, 
who  has  been  the  secretary  of  the  Brazilian  Union  from 
the  beginning,  for  his  indefatigable  efforts.  A  South 
American  Christian  Endeavour  Union  has  recently  been 
formed,  and  the  conventions,  state  and  national,  which 
I  have  recently  attended,  in  Rio,  Sao  Paulo,  Jahu,  and 
other  places  of  Brazil,  show  the  extraordinary  vigour  and 
vitality  of  the  movement. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  perhaps,  that  the  Christian 
Endeavour  Society  is  the  one  great  unifying  movement 
among  the  churches  of  South  America,  where  unity  is  so 
much  needed.  There  are  also  a  number  of  Epworth 
Leagues  connected  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  churches 


PROTESTANT  MISSIONS 


329 


doing  a  good  work.  It  would  be  a  joy  to  many  if  they 
had  a  more  vital  connection  with  the  only  interdenomina¬ 
tional  movement  of  the  kind  in  South  America. 

This  chapter  is  already  long  enough,  and  I  am  aware 
that  it  is  little  more  than  a  catalogue  of  Protestant  re¬ 
ligious  work  in  South  America.  But  it  is  a  catalogue  of 
immense  significance,  for  the  future  of  the  continent,  and 
it  is  a  catalogue  which  records  names,  most  of  which  are 
personally  familiar  to  me,  and  loved  for  their  work  and 
their  worth’s  sake.  It  has  at  least  the  merit  of  giving  a 
bird’s-eye  view,  however  unsatisfactory,  of  the  chief  evan¬ 
gelical  work  carried  on  in  South  America. 

I  append  in  the  supplement  a  tabular  view  of  the  mis¬ 
sionary  and  evangelical  societies  which  have  their  fields 
in  this  continent.  These  are  the  latest  figures  I  could 
obtain,  but  they  doubtless  need  correction  in  some  par¬ 
ticulars,  corrections,  I  am  glad  to  say,  largely  in  the  way 
of  enlargement. 


XL 


LIGHTS  AND  SHADOWS  ON  THE  MAP 


Great  European  Emigration — The  Vast  Material  Resources — Free  In* 
stitutions — Republicanism  Intrenched — A  Mediaeval  Catholicism — 
Pope  Leo’s  Encyclical — Need  of  a  Luther — Lightning-Like  Changes 
—Sr.  Forgas— Illiteracy— Lives  of  Foreigners— The  Light  Winning 


Its  Way. 


HAT  is  the  outlook  for  South  America?”  I 
hear  my  readers  ask.  u  We  do  not  care  so 
much  for  statistics  and  figures  and  elaborate 


details,  as  we  do  for  a  general  view  of  the  helps  and  hin¬ 
drances,  the  lights  and  shadows  of  the  situation.” 

He  would  be  a  rash  man  who,  after  spending  only  four 
months  in  a  great  continent  like  South  America,  and  vis¬ 
iting  so  hastily  as  a  traveller  must  in  that  brief  time,  its 
many  republics,  should  speak  with  dogmatic  certainty 
of  the  future.  His  cock-sure  prophecies  would  be  very 
likely  to  be  discredited  by  the  events.  I  have  read  too 
many  such  oracular  statements  about  South  America 
which  have  already  been  discredited,  to  desire  to  add  to 
them.  One  can  only  speak  modestly  of  his  own  impres¬ 
sions  and  describe  what  he  has  actually  seen,  and  draw 
reasonable  deductions  from  facts  as  they  are. 

There  are  both  lights  and  shadows  on  the  map  of  South 
America.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  continent  is  devel¬ 
oping  in  material  things  at  a  tremendous  rate,  at  least  all 
the  southern  half  of  it.  Emigrants  are  pouring  in,  capi¬ 
tal  from  Europe  and  North  America  seems  to  be  supplied 
in  unlimited  amounts,  the  people  in  Peru,  Bolivia,  Ar¬ 
gentina  and  Brazil  are  waking  up  to  a  life  of  enterprise 
of  which  they  never  dreamed  in  the  days  of  the  Spanish 
dominion  or  in  the  early  days  of  republican  rule. 


330 


LIGHTS  AND  SHADOWS  ON  THE  MAP  331 


Tlie  large  European  emigration  grafted  upon  the  native 
stock  is  producing  in  some  of  the  republics  practically  a 
new  race  as  in  the  republic  of  Argentina  and  the  state  of 
S&o  Paulo  in  Brazil,  a  race  as  distinct  from  any  one  of 
the  European  or  Indian  stocks  from  which  it  has  sprung, 
as  the  amalgamated  race  of  the  United  States  is  from  any 
one  of  the  mother  countries.  Though  the  people  speak 
the  Spanish  or  Portuguese  languages,  they  are  no  more 
Spanish  or  Portuguese  than  the  Americans  are  English, 
or  the  Boers  of  South  Africa  are  Hollanders. 

This  amalgamation  and  mixture  of  virile  races  is  a 
good  sign  for  South  America,  and  the  result  will  be  a  far 
stronger  race,  physically,  mentally,  let  us  hope  also  spir¬ 
itually,  than  though  Spain  or  Portugal  alone  had  fur¬ 
nished  the  only  strain  of  European  blood. 

It  is  difficult,  too,  to  overestimate,  as  has  been  inti¬ 
mated  in  other  chapters,  the  material  resources  of  South 
America.  It  has  double  the  territory  of  the  United  States 
available  for  emigrants  and  less  than  half  the  population. 
It  is  evident  that  as  the  United  States  and  Canada  fill  up, 
and  there  are  signs  already  that  that  day  is  not  far  dis¬ 
tant,  South  America,  which  now  welcomes  emigrants 
with  open  arms,  will  be  the  greatest  field  in  the  world 
for  the  continual  inflow  of  the  peaceful  European  hordes. 
Already  every  emigrant  steamer  to  South  America  is 
crowded  with  Italians,  Spaniards,  Germans  and  men  of 
many  other  nationalities,  and,  though  the  returning 
steamers  also  take  many  back  to  their  native  lands,  a 
large  residuum  remains  behind,  and  become  the  sons  of 
the  new  soil.  There  is  no  questioning  this  fact,  that 
South  America  is  destined  to  be  not  only  a  country  of 
vast  resources,  but  of  vast  developed  resources,  and  of 
enormous  population,  of  a  varied  and  virile  European 
stock. 

Another  broad  patch  of  sunlight  on  the  map  of  South 


332  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


America  is  its  free  institutions.  From  the  Isthmus  to 
Cape  Horn  these  free  institutions  are  established.  To  be 
sure,  this  freedom  has  been  abused  in  the  past,  and  will 
doubtless  be  abused  in  the  future.  Some  of  the  republics 
seem  to  be  republics  only  in  name,  and  Tyranny  at  times 
masquerades  under  the  name  of  Democracy. 

But  there  is  improvement  all  along  the  line,  and  real 
republicanism  is  making  headway  with  every  year.  It 
is  something  to  find  a  whole  continent  where  free  speech 
and  a  free  press  and  freedom  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  dictates  of  one’s  conscience  prevails  from  end  to  end. 
To  be  sure  there  are  a  few  fanatical  centres  where  free¬ 
dom  of  worship  is  scarcely  allowed  as  yet,  but  these  are 
hardly  more  than  the  exceptions  that  prove  the  conti¬ 
nental  rule. 

A  Sultan  with  his  foot  of  iron  on  all  his  subject  races  ; 
a  Czar  ruling  with  absolute  authority,  and  dissolving  the 
people’s  parliament  at  his  own  caprice,  is  inconceivable 
in  South  America.  In  fact  it  would  be  morally  and 
physically  impossible  for  any  monarchical  government  to 
establish  itself  anew  on  any  foot  of  South  American  terri¬ 
tory,  and  the  portions  which  still  owe  allegiance  to  Euro¬ 
pean  powers  are  comparatively  insignificant. 

It  is  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  North  Americans  that 
in  spite  of  the  great  influx  of  Europeans  and  their  pre¬ 
dominance  in  business  and  all  commercial  affairs,  yet  the 
South  American  countries  have  so  largely  modelled 
themselves  upon  the  governmental  principles  tested  and 
tried  in  the  United  States. 

Says  Dr.  Thomas  B.  Wood  :  “  Those  ten  nations  (he 

wrote  before  Panama  became  a  separate  republic,  but  his 
words  are  now  true  of  eleven  nations)  have  copied  our 
constitutions,  our  laws,  our  political  methods  ;  they  have 
introduced  our  school  systems,  and  imported  teachers 
from  the  United  States  to  work  them  ;  they  have  made  a 


LIGHTS  AND  SHADOWS  ON  THE  MAP  333 

study  of  our  whole  ‘  mode  of  existence  ’  as  they  call  it, 
on  purpose  to  seek  to  reproduce  it  among  themselves. 
This  is  without  parallel  elsewhere  ;  and  when  we  take 
into  account  the  barriers  of  language,  religion  and  race 
prejudice  that  separate  them  from  us,  their  inclination  to 
follow  the  United  States — profound  and  all  prevailing 
as  it  is, — stands  unmatched  in  history.” 

In  a  word,  South  America  is  a  land  of  enormous  re¬ 
sources,  and  is  attracting  a  population  that  will  develop 
them.  It  is  a  continent  of  liberty  and  large  aspiration, 
whose  people  prize  the  freedom  for  which  they  have 
fought  and  bled  so  freely.  It  is  a  country  where  educa¬ 
tion,  so  largely  neglected  in  the  past,  is  making  headway, 
and  where  superstition  and  bigotry  are  every  year  loosen¬ 
ing  their  hold  on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people. 

But  are  there  no  shadows  ?  Surely  there  are,  and  some 
are  dark  enough.  No  land  is  without  them,  and  we 
could  hardly  expect  such  a  vast  continent  as  South 
America  to  be  unflecked  by  them. 

The  worst,  as  has  before  been  implied,  is  the  shadow  of 
a  mediaeval  Boman  Catholicism.  I  do  not  like  to  hear  it 
called  “  Paganism”  as  some  of  my  brethren  are  fond  of 
denominating  it.  With  all  its  darkness  it  is  far  removed 
from  the  fetichism  of  Africa,  or  the  filthy  Hinduism  of 
the  Ganges,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  such  epithets  carry 
any  conviction  or  make  any  converts. 

But  Boman  Catholicism  as  practiced  in  many  parts  of 
South  America,  is  a  dark  and  degraded  form  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  sanctions  and 
restraints  of  pure  Christianity  have  little  effect  on  the 
great  majority  of  priests  and  people  alike.  To  show  that 
this  is  no  exaggeration,  I  quote,  not  from  any  Protestant 
source,  but  from  the  encyclical  letter  of  Pope  Leo  XIII  to 
the  clergy  of  Chile,  issued  in  1897.  “  It  is  sad  to  reflect,” 

he  says,  “that  prelates,  priests  and  other  clergy  are 


334  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


never  to  be  found  doing  service  among  the  poor  ;  they  are 
never  in  the  hospitals  or  lazar  house  ;  never  in  the  orphan 
asylum  or  hospice,  in  the  dwellings  of  the  afflicted  or  dis¬ 
tressed  or  engaged  in  works  of  beneficence,  aiding  primary 
instruction  or  found  in  refuges  or  prisons.  ...  As  a 
rule  they  are  ever  absent  where  human  misery  exists,  un¬ 
less  paid  as  chaplains,  or  a  fee  is  given.  On  the  other 
hand  you  (the  clergy)  are  always  to  be  found  in  the 
houses  of  the  rich,  or  wherever  gluttony  may  be  indulged 
in,  wherever  the  choicest  wines  may  be  freely  obtained.” 

Most  Protestants  who  were  not  absolutely  familiar  with 
the  facts  would  hesitate  to  use  such  scathing  language  as 
the  Pope  himself  here  employs,  or  as  was  quoted  in  a 
previous  chapter  from  the  Bishop  of  Cochabamba,  and  I 
would  refer  for  these  facts  to  no  prejudiced  witness. 

Yet  in  spite  of  this  corruption  and  degeneracy,  which 
Catholics  themselves  admit,  the  Roman  Church  is  yet  a 
great  power  iu  South  America.  There  is  no  use  in  blink¬ 
ing  this  fact  out  of  sight.  It  still  controls  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  millions  of  the  people.  In  some  countries 
the  women  and  consequently  the  children,  are  entirely 
under  its  domination.  Its  churches  are  imposing,  stately, 
and  often  gorgeously  adorned,  to  suit  the  somewhat  bar¬ 
baric  taste  of  the  poorer  worshippers.  In  Lima,  San¬ 
tiago,  Buenos  Ayres,  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  other  centres 
will  be  found  cathedrals  which  for  size  and  beauty  can 
hardly  be  surpassed  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and 
scarcely  equalled  in  North  America.  When  we  compare 
these  churches  with  the  insignificant  Protestant  chapels 
which  in  all  but  a  few  cases  serve  for  the  Reformed 
religion,  when  we  look  at  the  bare,  uninviting,  and 
sometimes  untidy  interior  of  these  chapels,  and  compare 
them  with  the  gold  and  frescoes  and  the  gorgeous  and 
elaborate  ceremonial  of  the  great  Catholic  churches,  we 
can  forgive  the  unbeliever  who  sees  but  a  little  ways 


LIGHTS  AND  SHADOWS  ON  THE  MAP  335 


beneath  the  surface,  for  contending  that  Protestantism 
has  made  no  headway,  and  that  Eoman  Catholicism  is  as 
strong  as  ever. 

The  trouble  with  the  superficial  skeptic  is  that  he  does 
not  see  beneath  the  surface.  He  cannot  see  the  leaven  at 
work  in  the  meal,  but  the  leaven  is  there. 

Yet,  corrupt  as  it  is,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Catholic 
Church  of  South  America  is  to  be  destroyed.  It  has 
taken  too  strong  a  hold  of  the  imaginations,  yes,  and 
of  the  affections  of  the  people,  especially  of  the  women. 
The  hope  of  the  church  is  in  a  Savonarola  or  a  Luther 
from  among  her  own  people,  who  may  arise  and  purify 
her  from  within,  or,  failing  in  this,  establish  a  pure 
religious  faith  that  may  attract  the  masses,  and  save 
them  from  drifting  into  open  skepticism  and  unbelief, 
which  is  even  now  threatening  South  America  with  a 
greater  curse  than  Catholicism.  We  need  not  despair 
of  the  rise  of  such  a  reformer  or  the  spread  of  such  a 
reformation. 

These  South  American  countries  have  a  way  of  under¬ 
going  revolutionary  changes  in  government  and  industry 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  as  compared  with  the  slower 
changes  of  older  nations.  In  fifteen  years  more  than  half 
the  continent  changed  from  monarchical  rule  to  repub¬ 
licanism,  and  established  its  freedom,  and,  when  the 
time  came,  the  other  half  (Brazil)  made  the  same  change 
in  a  single  night,  without  the  shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood. 
The  city  of  Bio  de  Janeiro  has  witnessed  a  like  marvel¬ 
lous  change  which  in  two  short  years  has  changed  a 
cramped,  ill-paved,  dirty,  fever-stricken  city  into  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  cities  of  any  continent  and  one  which 
can  boast  absolutely  the  finest  avenue  in  the  world. 

What  can  thus  be  done  as  by  a  stroke  of  lightning  in 
politics  and  architecture,  involving  a  like  change  in  the 
temper  and  attitude  of  the  people,  may  come  at  any 


336  THE  CONTINENT  OF  OPPORTUNITY 


time  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  sphere.  God  hasten  the 
day! 

There  are  already  signs  that  such  a  prophet  may  arise 
in  South  America.  I  do  not  believe  he  will  ever  be 
imported  from  abroad. 

In  Peru,  Senor  Forgas  has  made  a  great  sensation  by 
his  free  speech  and  his  unsparing  attacks  on  the  Papacy, 
and  though  he  does  not  probably  have  the  positive  belief 
and  the  spiritual  stamina  necessary  to  head  a  great  reform 
movement,  yet  the  fact  that  he  has  spoken  and  written 
so  vigorously  as  to  be  practically  banished  from  Peru  by 
the  Priesthood,  and  the  further  fact  that  he  has  obtained 
a  considerable  following  and  his  numerous  pamphlets  a 
wide  reading,  point  the  way  to  a  spiritual  awakening 
which  may  at  any  time  sweep  over  South  America  from 
Panama  to  Patagonia. 

The  lack  of  good  schools  and  the  appalling  illiteracy 
in  many  parts  of  the  continent  is  another  shadow  on  its 
fair  surface.  But  slowly  this  shadow  is  disappearing,  as 
the  sun  of  popular  education  breaks  through  the  clouds 
of  ignorance  in  which  Romanism  has  so  long  held  the 
people. 

The  frequent  revolutions  and  political  disturbances 
have  set  back  South  America  for  a  full  half  century,  as 
compared  with  her  neighbours  on  the  north,  but  these 
revolutions  have  been  growing  11  smaller  by  degrees  and 
beautifully  less,”  and  no  decade  has  been  so  free  from  them 
as  the  last.  In  fact,  in  the  more  progressive  republics 
they  may  already  be  considered  things  of  the  past. 

Another  great  hindrance  to  the  spread  of  evangelical 
Christianity  and  a  shadow  on  South  America  which  alas, 
has  come  from  nominally  Christian  lands,  is  the  looseness 
of  the  lives  of  foreigners  in  all  the  great  cities.  Drunken¬ 
ness,  licentiousness,  Sabbath  breaking,  and  gambling 
abound  among  them,  and  even  church  goers  and  church 


336 


time  in 
day! 

Thert 
in  Sou 
importe 
In  Pi 
his  free 
and  the 
and  the 
movemi 
so  vigoi 
the  Pri 
a  cons! 
wide  re 
which  i 
Panama 
The  ] 
in  man 
fair  sur 
the  sun 
of  igno 
people. 

The 
have  se 
compar 
revoluti 
beautih 
as  the  ' 
they  nn 
Anot' 
Christia 
has  cou 
of  the  li 
ness,  li 
abound 


LIGHTS  AND  SHADOWS  ON  THE  MAP  337 


members  at  home,  I  am  assured,  do  not  hesitate  to 
patronize  Sunday  races  in  Buenos  Ayres,  and  such  large 
centres.  ‘ 1  If  Protestant  Christian  merchants  and  Chris¬ 
tian  emigrants  generally  in  South  America  were  true  to 
their  profession,  and  consistent  in  their  lives,  I  could 
almost  say  that  there  would  be  no  need  of  missionaries,” 
said  a  missionary  to  me,  and  I  have  heard  his  words 
reechoed  by  more  than  one. 

Such  are  some  of  the  lights  and  shadows  on  the  larger 
moral  and  spiritual  as  well  as  material  outlook  for  South 
America.  I  cannot  help  believing  that  the  light  is  win¬ 
ning  its  way,  and  chasing  away  the  clouds.  An  impartial 
outlook  over  the  history  of  the  country  for  a  hundred 
years  certainly  shows  far  more  sunshine  to-day  than  a 
century  ago  and  the  progress  of  the  last  quarter  century 
has  been  unrivalled,  showing  that  in  a  rapidly  increasing 
ratio  the  light  is  gaining  on  the  darkness. 

“  Watchman,  what  of  the  night  in  South  America?” 

“The  morning  cometh.” 


GENERAL  STATISTICS  CONCERNING  SOUTH  AMERICAN  COUNTRIES 

Compiled  mainly  from  “  The  Statesman’s  Year-Book/'  and  “The  World  Almanac.”  Abbreviations:  est.=esti  mated  ;  c.=census  ;  parentheses 
indicate  dates.  These  statistics,  while  the  latest  available,  may  not  be  strictly  accurate,  as  in  some  countries  a  census  is  rarely  if  ever  taken.  The 
figures  are,  however,  approximately  correct. 


•sicjide3 


•=  £ 


3  -2  3 


PM  »  O'  iJ 


<  B 


PQ  S  < 


C  JZ 

.2  U 

MO. 
2  >>  *: 

°  sj 

tn  oi 

a  « « 


.i  .i  .i  i  .i 

MM  ’m  ^ 'm  ^ 

sS « i 

3  rt  c  3  g  3  g 

lllll.ll 

O  O  U  U  "  o  ~ 

°~  o 
o  oi  oi»  Ov, 
JZ  JZ  ^  J3  O  O 
3  3  d  3  3  3  £ 
UUO'J  §CJ  § 
CCMc’Sc’O 
3  3—  3  £  3  « 

E  6ii  c>  G.^ 

O  O  ^  o  ^  O  1*4 

&p4  <& 


0  <o  . 

.2  §! 

■3 11 3 

in 

o  33  <U 
T3  O  t; 
4>  JZ  Js 
10  *i  a, 
u  3 


E  « 
§  £ 
£  « 


«3  2 
“.2,8 
|o  c 
rt  3  3 

>,.2.g 

cr  o  <-> 
WH 


•sjuopnjg 


•S3IJISJ3AIUn 

puc  S333JI03 


-SJBioqDS 


'S[OOlJOS  J3MOJ 

pue  Ajbuiuj 

Orot^vo^  vo^o^  O  00  VO  -tf- 

wwooovo  00  OO  ON  00*0  M 

O  w  m  m  m  00  m  m  w  vo 

•SUBipUJ 

s§  §  §  3  §  §  %  §/§;§ 

in  o'  to  o'  q*'  tr'o"'nl/>  o'  vcT  hT  Jq\cT 

On  m  Q  10  ON  cn  CO  M  « 

co  m  00  t>»  5  00  0  cn  vro 

w  m  ^ 

•uotjBindoj 

340,000 

3,878,600 

1,271,861 
(1896  est) 
4,609,999 

1,633,000 
(1895  c) 
2,712,145 

5,022,248 
(1897  est) 
978,000 

530,000 

(1897) 

2.050 

(est) 

1  N  OO^nQ  ^-nVO 

>  ^  M  ^VO  0  ■*-  m 

L  00  N„  s:  ”  8  ^  8  °° 

1  O'vO  ON  \r>  rr, 

1  8  "*3;? 

L  w  ^  w  0  co  T 

>  M  M  « 

*s3i;ui 
'bs  ui  Baay 


H  i  i, 


•S  CS~ 


o 

•  —  G 
-O  w 
3  G 


.22  3 
.J3'2o 

i|(2  a 

3'o^1  o 

aurtW 
CM  w 


3 

.2  c! 
?2> 


<X o 


r  ,  «  a  41 
^  ^  4»  M 


W  5 

:03  o 


SP 

_ 

3  3  w  C  3  rt  ji'  3 

.2  .2  >3  -s  .2  3  .2  3 .2 

111  5-2  m2  3>3 

0.20. 

V  r\  *>  <n  — *  *»  -*  «• 


«3  § 
T3 


►2  S3  $ 


3 

■S.2 


u  «•  >-  a  ro 
<d  4)n,  - 


PQ  Q  fa 


4)  2 

>W 


338 


SOUTH  AMERICAN  MISSIONARY  STATISTICS' 


•SJUdTJBJ 

|  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  ! 

•sjuapms  j  :  «  :  :  :  :  :  : 

•suoijnjijsui  j»q3ijj  |  :  **  :  :  :  :  :  : 

•sndnj 

i  i  !  S  i  M  i 

■sjooqos-XBQ 

3 

47 

2 

'siUBDianui 
-uiod  jou  ‘sjuaaaqpy 

1  !  Ml!  a  i 

•sjuBDiunuiuio3 

i  »  |  |  !  i  s  s 

•suoijBjs-jno 

:  §  ?  :  :  s  :  : 

•suoijbjs 

co  m  in  so 

S3X3S  qjoq 

‘SJ33(iOAV  8AI}«^ 

$  3  S  $  :<2  S'  : 

•surpisXqd  spsp^ 

I  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  : 

•U3UIOA  jsqjo 

i  S  5"  «  :  :  : 

•S3A?AV 

:  ^  £  J  «  :  :  : 

•uauiXeq 

8 

X 

4 

18 

•pu.pao  ‘S3UBUOSSStW 

moo  J 

Countries  occupied ; 
year  of  entrance. 

Arg.  Rep.  (1864).  Venez.  (1888), 
Brazil  (1876),  Col’mbia  (1888). 

Brazil  (1889). 

Chile,  Arg.  Rep.,  Uruguay. 
Chile  (1873),  Colombia  (1856), 
Brazil  (1859),  Venez.  (1897). 

Brazil  (1876). 

Brazil  (1893). 

Arg.  Republic  (1821),  Brazil. 

British  Guiana  (1873). 

Auxiliary  to  No.  32. 

Arg.  Rep.,  Brazil,  Chile,  Vene¬ 
zuela,  Ecuador. 

•jjodsi  jo 

#1111  #|  |  j  1 

>  £ 


iP?!fiij 

SWiili 


mifM'liW 

H  «  m  4  wS  «o  od  c>  o 

339 


••jaaijrj 

« 

: 

8  : 
fO 

: 

: 

s  :  : 

•sjuopnjg  |  • 

00  ; 

ro  • 

g. 

•taoiinjtjsui  aaqSijj  |  • 

"  : 

- 

- 

•sndnj 

vO 

00 

ON 

CO 

vo  : 

0 

w 

M 

ci 

•siooqos-XBQ 

Ov 

« 

”»  : 

« 

♦ 

ro 

:  M  : 

•sjuBDiunia 
•moo  joa  ‘siuojaqpv 

VO 

s?  • 

ro  • 

«o 

ro 

1,000 

*sjaT5o;anuiuio3 

Cl 

''f 

§5  : 

1,012 

s 

qv 

8: 

•sao;jrjs-jno 

r.  = 

ro 

w  :  : 

•suoijbjs 

2 

VO 

M  W 

ro 

00 

« 

00 

03 

ro 

S  H  M 

S3X3S  qjoq 
'SJSqJOAV  3AIJB^ 

0 

VO 

Ov 

- 

0  :  : 

« 

•sirepisXqd  spjpq 

1  •: 

«  : 

« 

•U3UI0M  joqio 

1 

0  • 

*■ 

ro 

H 

•S3AIM 

1  a 

0  : 

N 

00 

" 

♦ 

S  S  - 

*U3UiXb^  1 

1  * 

w 

Ov 

W 

N 

«  •  j 

•pu.pjo  'SOUBUOJSSIJ^  | 

0 

2  : 

ro 

00 

H 

M 

is 


O  c 


if 

o  * 
U 


>< 

*  O 

,s|,a 

'-j*  u 

S  2  S 

q  u  ■- 

O^g 

_  rt  Ofl 


2H> 

j£c| 

8s  *-.2® 

— '  sO  o 


S' 


3  £  |  2®  3 


3  O 

0  ’S 

•C  3 
to  u 

S  w  S 


bi2C 


K  Si 


*U0d3J  JO  J«3A 


^  <2* 


85  85 


& 


E-S 

o  V 
O  ti 

WCQ 


i  §  J»5- 

g  c  6 
e  c  5.2  « 
'-'  o  u.  ^  -f* 
«U  7*  2  3 

►g  J3 


9-S 


•  u-_n  w 

j  c3|  -g  > 


W§«3£<: 

#C  *C  *  ^5  rt  .  2  CO 

sis  a. 


.§11 

-S-o  «' 

°J  !| 

J  C  V] 

S2|f 

.2  0  g 


OT=  g  > 
•g  g 

rt  >  •£ 

,ss  ss 


.2  Ew 

«_  o  w 

=  2-u« 


1° 


u  CL  C 
•tj  rt  v 

c  «  e 

3  «j 

12  -Ss 


Srt 

on 


X  O, 


340 


Argentine  Republic. 


to 


5  s 
S  § 


CT>  'fop 


o  S-  g.s§  ^ 
z  «  £  ~  3 

-C  .  .  3ft 

•s  £*  S*i3^ 

*  <  $ 
4J  ,<  ^.^co 
•-  co  o  oo  ” 
rt  on  ro 

S  OO  0O0O  K. 

IB  ^  rt 

<  a  rzv  g, 

2  3 

33  03° 


rt  rt 
G  G 
rt  ctf 
3  3 

OO 


ft  <; 

ft!  >N 

.  rt 

60  3 

u  60 

«  2 
p  D 
co 

O  ^ 

co  C 

«  rt 

2  3 

ft  33 


tf 
.  < 

Si  u  ® 
“  2« 


«  O 

3« 


GO 


>.  :  ~ 
rt  !  ‘3 

1=  = 

s<  I 

-Sai 

rt  u  . 

.2  o  £ 

■a  > 

4i  «  « 


c  *_  2  "3  ft 

r,  o  .2.2  .r* 


,T3 

!  s 


O 

>.J3: 

«  H 

o  3 

o~ 

C/3CJ 

>•■2 

l£ 

o  . 


*1!  -a  c  «  « 

1  s 


.2D 


-  2.S 

Cut) 


c  £0 

■2 


c  .2 

t/> 

<.2 


—*  v  o  qj  '“J  z; ,  rt 

JSS3  S  Pi  d  C/3  C/3  oft 


341 


E  £ 

<-~ 


■Si n 


ft  c 
■o  ^  ‘ 


=  SM 

*  .C  v  o  . 

e|^-“ 

—  C  c't;  "2S 


.3  G 
o  o 

£c^ 


> 


o  <« 

B-H 

oi 

3<i 


m  no 


INDEX 


Afbica,  19,  230,  235,  330 
Agassiz,  Louis,  231 
Aija,  89 
Alaska,  229 
Alcorta,  President,  284 
Alfonso,  Bishop  of  Cochabamba, 
317,  334 

Almagro,  Diego  de,  21,  55,  79, 
88,  148,  149 
Alonzo,  President,  120 
Alps,  114,  198,  214,  287 
Amador  (Guerrero),  President 
Manuel,  32,  278 
Amaru,  Tupac,  117 
Amazon,  66,  133,  137,  138,  141, 
181,  231,  264,  272 
America  (United  States),  123, 
135,  137,  158,  163,  222,  225, 
'226,  316,  322,  330,  331 
American  Bible  Society,  324,  325 
American  College  for  Girls,  300 
Anchieta,  Father  Jose  de,  233, 
312 

Ancon,  30 


Andes, 

16,  49,  54,  99- 

-108, 

122- 

127, 

130, 

140, 

141, 

155, 

160, 

161, 

175, 

177, 

181- 

-189, 

192, 

194, 

198, 

201, 

203, 

204, 

230, 

287, 

288,  326 

Antigua,  46 

Antofagasta, 

122, 

130, 

134, 

137, 

155,  158,  159,  164 
Arabia,  249 

Araucanians,  149,  322,  328 
Arawaks,  230 

Arequipa,  107-113,  123-125,  287, 
313,  318,  323 
Arica,  Province  of,  84,  86 
Arizona,  203 

Argentina,  13-15,  18,  66,  118, 
119,  132,  137,  150,  153,  154, 
171,  181,  186,  188,  190-216, 


219,  221,  225-227,  267,  271, 
284,  288,  289,  295,  296,  301, 
306,  309,  316,  321,  328,  330,  331 
Arkansas,  295 

Artigas,  General  Jos6  Gervasio, 
216 

Ascuncion,  221 
^sja  2^ 

Atahuallpa,  20,  55,  56,  77-79,  98, 
115,  279 

Australia,  22,  205,  226,  229 
Ayacucho,  battle  of,  82 
Azangaro,  89 
Aztecs,  47,  72 

Bahia,  230,  234,  292 
Balboa,  Nunez  de,  45,  46,  55 
Balkan  States,  301 
Balmaceda,  President  Jos4  Man¬ 
uel,  153 
Baptists,  321 
Batty,  Miss,  327 
Beaupre,  Hon.  A.  M.,  285 
Belfast,  150 
Belgium,  132 

Beresford,  General  Wm.,  195 
Berkshire  Hills,  147 
Berlin,  191,  205,  206 
Berne,  97 
Biobio,  149 

Bishop  of  Cochabamba,  317,  334 
Blanco,  Guzman,  267 
Boers,  331 

Bogota,  43,  44,  46,  48-50,  54 
Bolivar,  Simon,  21,  24,  47,  48, 
56,  81,  82,  118,  198,  267,  269 
Bolivia,  13,  18,  54,  66,  83,  114- 
149,  153,  154,  156,  159,  160, 
171,  180,  191,  192,  194,  196, 
197,  203,  230,  231,  267,  288, 
298,  301,  302,  309,  316,  317, 
321,  330 


344 


INDEX 


Bologna,  97 
Bombay,  142 
Borda,  President,  217 
Bosphorus,  301 

Boston,  39,  87,  147,  170,  212,  218, 
221,  250 
Botofogo,  246 
Botucatei,  259 
Bourbon,  249 
Bourbons,  118 
Braga,  Rev.  Erasmo,  259 
Brazil,  13-15,  18,  19,  81,  119, 
132,  138,  194,  200,  203,  207, 
215,  216,  221-223,  225-227, 
229-262,  272,  288,  290,  295- 
298,  300,  306,  309,  312,  316, 
320,  321,  323,  325-328,  330,  331 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
58,  324 

Brooklyn  Bridge,  101 
Brown,  Admiral  Wm.,  197,  216 
Brown,  Dr.,  320 
Brown,  Miss,  298 
Browning,  Rev.  W.  E.,  176,  179, 
300 

Buda-Pesth,  240 

Buenos  Ayres,  13,  181,  187,  188, 
191-194,  198,  201,  202,  205, 
208-214,  218,  220,  226,  227, 
242,  289,  291,  294,  296,  300, 
314,  325-327,  334,  337 
Buonaparte,  Joseph,  196 
Buonaparte,  Napoleon,  32,  47,  81, 
196-198,  235 

Cabral,  Lieutenant  Pedro 
Alvarez,  229-231 
Cacha,  54 
Cadiz,  192,  265 
Cairo,  142 
Cajamarca,  56 
Caleta  Buena,  159,  162 
California,  46,  101,  203,  258 
Callao,  82,  90,  92,  95,  151,  169, 
192,  325 

Cambridge,  107,  113 
Campifias,  257,  261 
Canada,  290,  331 
Canal  Zone,  26-43 
Capac,  Huiana,  54 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  229 


Cape  Horn,  22,  27,  162,  332 
Cape  Town,  124,  241 
Cape  Verde  Islands,  229 
Carabaya,  89 

Caracas,  194,  265,  266,  268,  269, 
287 

Caras,  54,  55,  58,  67 
Carey,  Wm.,  322,  323 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  223 
Carpenter,  F.  G.,  160,  203,  204 
Cartagena,  22,  44,  45 
Cassiquiare  River,  272 
Castilla,  President  Ramon,  82, 
83,  281 

Castro,  President,  267,  268,  274 
Catskill  Mountains,  147 
Cavea,  241 
Cayenne,  275 
Cerrito,  214 
Cerro-d  e-Pasco,  89,  287 
Chachani,  109,  112,  113,  124 
Chibohas,  17,  47 

Chicago,  38,  63,  191,  205,  208, 
212,  248 
Chicama,  89 

Chile,  13,  18,  19,  61,  66,  83,  84, 
86,  88,  98,  114,  115,  118,  119, 
121,  122,  130,  131,  134,  137, 
147-181,  186,  191,  197,  198, 
200,  227,  230,  263,  283,  288, 
289,  296,  299,  301,  309,  320- 
322,  325,  328,  333 
Chili  River,  109,  112,  124 
Chimborazo,  67 
China,  33,  46,  98,  225 
Chincha,  89 

Chinchon,  Countess  of,  81 
Chiriqui,  28,  29 

Christian  Endeavour,  257-262, 
316,  328 

Church  of  England,  321,  326 
Clark,  Myron  A.,  262,  327 
Cleveland,  19 

Cleveland,  President  Grover,  274 
Cochabamba,  132 
Cochabamba,  Bishop  of,  317,  334 
Cochrane,  Lord  Alexander,  151, 
169 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  113 

Coligny,  Admiral  Gaspard  de,  234 

Colombia,  17,  18,  23,  24,  26,  43- 


INDEX 


345 


50,  54,  55,  57,  267,  278,  286, 
296,  306,  308,  320,  328 
Colon,  city,  27-30,  34-40 
Colon,  province,  28 
Colorado,  203 

Columbus,  Christopher,  45,  264, 
265,  273 

Concepcion,  288,  300 
Congregationalists,  323 
Connecticut,  132,  295 
Constantinople,  301 
Costa  Rica,  26 
Corcovado,  241,  246 
Cordova,  119 
Corea,  130,  131,  225 
Cornwall,  135 
Cristobal,  30,  35 
Cuba,  31,  33,  53 
Cuzco,  17,  69,  73,  78,  115 

Darien,  22,  28 
David,  28 

Dawson,  T.  C.,  20,  21,  47,  79, 
194,  224,  232,  236,  265,  280, 
306 

de  Anchieta,  Father  Jose,  233, 
312 

de  Balboa,  Nunez,  45,  46,  55 
de  Gama,  Vasco,  229 
De  Lesseps,  35,  38 
Dent  du  Midi,  126 
Denver,  53 
de  Ojeda,  Alonso,  264 
Desaguardo  River,  126 
Detweiler,  Rev.  Mr.,  324 
Diaz,  President,  180,  284 
Disciples  of  Christ,  321 
District  of  Columbia,  198 
Drees,  Rev.  Dr.,  285 
Dutch,  234 

East  Indies,  229 
Ecuador,  13,  14,  18,  24,  48,  51- 
58,  63,  66,  67,  87,  88,  116,  118, 
128,  147,  287,  308,  324 
Ecumenical  Council,  317 
Edinburgh,  69 

England,  13,  43,  68,  127,  159, 
191,  195,  219,  226,  268,  316, 
322,  331 

Epworth  League,  328 


Eten,  86 

Europe,  53,  54,  80,  123,  132,  135, 
137,  158,  162,  163,  201,  222, 
232,  235,  299,  330 
Every,  Bishop,  326 

Falkland  Islands,  271,  326 
Fellows,  H.  F.,  326 
Fenn,  Dr.  and  Mrs.,  259 
Feraz,  Colonel,  251,  254,  255 
Ferdinand  V,  23 
Ferdinand  VII,  196 
Field,  Eugene,  142 
“  Finger  of  God,”  241 
Fleming,  Rev.  J.  W.,  325 
Flores,  General,  57 
Floriano,  President,  238 
Florida,  258 
Forgas,  Senor,  336 
France,  43,  50,  122,  132, 133,203, 
205,  214,  234,  271,  276,  309 
Francia,  Dr.  Jos6  Gaspar  Rode- 
riguez,  223-225 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  21 
French,  31,  37 
French,  Rev.  Mr.,  47 
Frost,  Mr.  R.,  112 
Frost,  Mrs.  R.,  Ill 
Fujiyama,  125 

Galera  Tunnel,  101 
Gama,  Vasco  de,  229 
Gardiner,  Captain  Allen  F.,  322 
Genoa,  177 
Georgetown,  273 
Germany,  122,  159,  162,  268 
Glasgow,  150,  221,  248 
Gloria  Hill,  245 
Golden  Gate,  167 
Golden  Horn,  167 
Gorgas,  Colonel  W.  C.,  31,  32, 
52,  53 

Gospel  Mission  of  Kansas,  324 
Grau,  Admiral,  83,  84,  153 
Great  Britain,  15,  87,  120,  122, 
150,  162,  203,  235,  260,  271, 
274,  307 

Great  Salt  Lake,  131 
Greeley,  Horace,  156 
Guano  Islands,  64,  82,  83,  86, 
156,  157 


346 


INDEX 


Guayas,  52,  53 

Guayaquil,  51-53,  57-60,  62,  63, 
287,  292 

Guiana,  British,  271-277,  322, 
323,  328 

Guiana,  Dutch,  271-277,  322, 
323,  328 

Guiana,  French,  271-277 
Guinness,  Dr.,  320,  322 

Hague  Tribunal,  268 
Hallanca,  89 

Harrington,  Dr.  and  Mrs.,  137, 
302 

Harvard  Observatory,  107-113, 
124 

Havana,  52 
Hayti,  295 

Hicks,  Hon.  John,  180 
Hoboken,  164 

Holland,  52,  68,  132,  271,  275, 
316,  331 

Holmes,  Fitzgerald,  326 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  291 
Hough,  Miss  E.  C.,  259 
Hualcopo,  54 
Huascar,  55,  56,  115,  279 
Huguenots,  234 
Humahuaca,  118 
Humboldt,  Alexander,  67 

Ica,  89 

Illimani,  128,  140 
Illinois,  198,  221,  296 
Incas,  17,  20,  22,  47,  54-56,  58, 
66-80,  85,  88,  98,  103,  115,116 
127,  128,  148,  149,  230,  322 
India,  114,  235,  322 
Inglis,  Rev.  W.  B.,  325 
Institute  Ingles,  300,  301 
Iowa,  202 
Iquique,  159,  293 
Isabella,  23 
Isle  of  Wight,  140 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  13,  23,  26- 
44,  49,  53,  107,  147,  163,  192, 
204,  265,  332 
Italy,  202,  268 

jAHtf,  251,  254,  256,  257,  260, 
261,  328 


Jamaica,  266 
Jamestown,  174 
Japan,  46,  73 

Jarrett,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  L.,  110, 
323 

Java,  249 

Jesuits,  222,  232-234,  312 
Job,  Rev.  Allen  G.,  110 
John  IV,  235 
Juncal,  183,  184 
Junot,  Marshal  Andoche,  235 

Kansas,  202,  203,  324 
Karnak,  69 
Kelly,  Dr.,  323 
Kennedy,  Rev.  Mr.,  386 
Kimberley,  235 
Kingston,  165,  166 

Lake  Erie,  123 
Lake  Geneva,  126 
Lake  Ontario,  131 
Lake  Poopo,  126 
Lake  Titicaca,  108,  115,  118,  122, 
126,  127,  130,  131,  133,  135, 
136,  161,  287,  298 
La  Paz,  120,  128,  131,  133,  134, 
136,  138-146,  175,  302,  321, 
325 

La  Paz  River,  140,  141 
La  Plata,  181,  192,  204,  213,  214, 
220 

Las  Cuevas,  187 

Leo  XIII,  Pope,  313,  333 

Lester,  Dr.,  325 

Lima,  54,  83,  84,  86,  87,  89,  90, 
92-102,  110,  175,  193,  194,281, 
287,  290,  300,  323,  334 
Linares,  Dr.,  119 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  21 
Linneseus,  Carl  von,  81 
Lion's  Head,  241 
Lisbon,  230,  235,  238 
Liverpool,  59,  292,  294 
Llai  Llai,  166,  182 
Lobos  Islands,  91,  92,  158 
London,  97,  150,  162,  191,  208, 
245,  248 

Lopez,  Carlos  Antonio,  225 
Lopez,  Francisco,  225 
Los  Andes,  182,  268,  288 


INDEX 


347 


Louis  XVI,  236 
Louisiana,  203 
Lutherans,  326 

Macartney,  Rev.  H.  C.,  326 
Madeira,  141 

Magellan,  Ferdinand,  214 
Maine,  258 

Maracaibo,  Gulf  of,  264 
Martin,  Alonzo,  46 
Massachusetts,  163,  295 
McGoon,  Governor,  33 
McKenzie  College,  259,  300,  301 
McLaughlin,  Dr.  W.  P.,  325 
Meiggs,  Mr.  Henry,  101 
Mello,  Admiral,  238 
Mendoza,  187,  188,  201,  203 
Merida,  265 
Mersey  Tunnel,  101 
Mesopotamia,  191 
Methodist  College,  300 
Methodists,  300,  302,  320,  321, 
326,  328 

Mexico,  15,  72,  194,  284 
Michigan,  156,  163 
Milne,  Rev.  Mr.,  325 
Minnesota,  259 
Miranda,  Francisco,  266 
Mississippi,  203 
Mississippi  River,  203,  205,  232 
Misti,  109,  112,  113,  124 
Mollendo,  86,  107,  108,  122,  123, 
125,  134,  137,  287 
Montana,  156 

Mont  Blanc,  101,  113,  125,  186, 
214,  287 
Montenegro,  186 

Montevideo,  13,  195,  197,  204, 
205,  214-220,  290,  299 
Montt,  President  Pedro,  120, 132, 
154,  172,  180,  283 
Moosehead  Lake,  258 
Moquegua,  89 
Moravians,  275,  321,  322 
Moreno,  President,  57 
Morillo,  General  Marshall,  22, 
23 

Mt.  Aconcagua,  187 
Mt.  Jefferson,  186 
Mt.  Meiggs,  101 
Mt.  Washington,  186 


Napoleon,  32,  47,  81,  196-198, 

235 

Nebraska,  202 

Neely,  Bishop,  318 

Neill,  Hon.  Richard  R.,  281,282 

Nelson,  Wolfred,  29 

Nero,  262 

New  England,  18 

New  Hampshire,  114 

Newhouse,  Mr.,  101 

New  Mexico,  160,  203 

New  South  Wales,  205 

New  York,  205 

New  York  City,  19,  37,  39,  40, 
59,  63,  87,  97,  147,  164,  165, 
191,  201,  203-205,  208,  218, 
245,  248,  250,  260,  266,  274, 
292,  294-296 
Nictheroy,  245,  262 
Nombre  de  Dios,  192 
Norway,  316 
Nova  Scotia,  147 
Nunez,  Rafael,  24,  49 

O’Higgins,  General,  150,  177 
O’ Higgins,  Bernardo,  150 
Ohio,  198 

Ojeda,  Alonso  de,  264 
Omaha,  204 
Oregon,  163 
Organ  Mountains,  241 
Orinoco  River,  272 
Oroya  Railway,  101,  287 
Oruro,  130,  132,  134,  136,  137, 
302,  321 

Pascamayo,  86 
Palma,  Dr.  Richard,  98 
Panama  City,  13,  27-31,  34,  38- 
40,  52,  55,  59,  61-63,  107,  163, 
181,  201,  278,  292,  293 
Panama  Province,  28 
Panama.  Republic,  13,  16,  26- 
44,  49,  162,  221,  278,  279,  319, 
328,  332,  336 
Pando,  General,  120,  132 
Paramaribo,  275 
Parana  River,  191,  204 
Paraguay.  191,  194,  219,  221- 
229,  232,  322 
Paraguay  River,  204,  224 


348 


INDEX 


Pardo,  President  Jose,  281,  318 
Pardo,  Don  Manuel,  280 
Paris,  94-97,  191,  205,  208,  212, 
214,  290 

Patagonia,  19,  28,  191,  203,  336 
Paulistas,  223,  232,  234 
Payta,  19,  63,  86,  89 
Pedro  I,  Dom,  236 
Pedro  II,  Dom,  237,  309 
Pernambuco,  194,  234,  235,  257 
Peru,  13,  18,  19,  24,  46,  51,  52, 
55,  56,  61,  63,  66-113, 115,  118- 
120,  126-128,  130,  134,  137, 
147-149,  153,  154,  158,  160, 
161,  163,  172,  180,  192,  193, 
196-198,  227,  230,  231,  263, 
264,  267,  279,  281,  282,  287, 
288,  298,  299,  301, 309,  316,  318, 
321,  322,  324,  325,  328,  330,  336 
Peters,  Lewis  T.  A.,  314 
Petropolis,  237,  242,  245 
Philadelphia,  37,  95,  191,  218, 
237,  258,  288 
Pilling,  Rev.  Mr.,  325 
Pisagua,  159 
Piura,  89 

Pizarro,  Franoisco,  20,  21,  24,  46, 
52,  55,  56,  77-79,  88,  93,  98, 
115,  148,  149,  279,  281 
Polo,  Dr.  V.,  281 
Pope,  45 

Portugal,  13,  23,  45,  233,  235, 
236,  245,  306,  307,  331 
Portuguese,  194,  233 
Potosi,  116,  135 
Prat,  150,  169 
Presbyterians,  300,  320 
Prescott,  W.  H.,  70,  74 
Providence,  132 
Prussia.  205 
Puerto  Cabello,  266 
Puno,  52 
Pyrenees,  188 

Quesada,  47 

Quito,  17,  51,  53,  54,  57,  58,  287, 
324 

Quizquiz,  66 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  273 
Ramalho,  John,  232 


Reed,  Rev.  Wm.,  324 
Regions  Beyond  Mission,  110, 
322,  323 

Rimac,  94,  95,  102 
Rio  Claro,  257,  261 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  13,  201,  218, 232, 
234,  236-248,  252,  257,  259, 
261,  262,  289-291,  294,  296, 
300,  309,  323,  325-328,  334,  335 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  State  of,  262 
Rio  Negro,  272 
Ritchie,  Mr.  John,  110 
River  Plate,  (see  La  Plata) 
Robert  College,  301 
Rocafuerte.  President,  57 
Rocher  de  Naye,  126 
Rocky  Mountains,  287 
Rome,  290,  315 

Roosevelt,  President  Theodore, 
32,  41,  92,  284 

Root,  Secretary  Elihu,  89-91,  247 
Rothschilds,  247 
Russia,  132 

Sahara  Desert,  160 
Sailors’  Homes,  326 
St.  Gothard  Tunnel,  101 
St.  Louis,  247 
St.  Paul,  259 
St.  Petersburg,  191 
Salt  Lake  City,  131,  203 
Salvation  Army,  327 
Sandia,  89 

San  Francisco,  165-167,  201, 
212 

San  Juan,  207 

San  Martin  de  Jos6,  General,  81, 
118,  150,  197,  198,  267 
Santiago,  153,  166,  170,  174-180, 
182,  198,  288,  289,  291,  296, 
300,  301,  325,  334 
Santos,  13,  250,  326 
S3o  Paulo,  city,  230,  232,  254, 
257,  259-261,  296,  298,  301, 
302,  312,  326,  328 
Sao  Paulo  Normal,  296-298 
Sao  Paulo,  Province,  223,  260, 
251,  331 

Saraiva,  Dr.  Eliezer  dos  Sanctos, 
259,  328 

Scandinavia,  68,  87 


INDEX 


349 


Seine,  94,  95 
Shiris,  54 

Shuman,  B.  F.,  327 
Snow,  Mr.,  112 
Sorato,  128 

South  American  Missionary  So¬ 
ciety,  149 
Southampton,  294 
Spain,  13,  15,  19,  23,  45,  46,  47, 
77,  152,  192,  196-198,  230,  265, 
267,  273,  306,  307,  331 
Spaniard  Harbour,  322 
Spenser,  Edmund,  143 
Squires,  Hon.  H.  C.,  32 
Stark,  Rev.  A.  R.,  325 
Stevens,  John  F.,  40 
Stockholm,  240 
Straits  of  Magellan,  189 
Straits  Settlements,  135 
Student  Volunteer  Movement, 
320 

Sucre,  General  Antonio  Jos6  de, 
56,  82,  118 
Sucr6,  131,  136 
Suez  Canal,  101 
Sugar  Loaf,  241 
Sweden,  316 

Switzerland,  103,  121,  140,  188 
Sydney,  240 
Syrian  College,  301 

Table  Mountain,  124,  241 
Tacna,  84,  86 
Texas,  203 
Thames  Tunnel,  101 
Thibet,  114 
Tijuca,  235 
Titicaca  Island,  127 
Toronto,  290 

Trans-Andean  Railway,  13,  166, 
181-189 
Trinidad,  328 
Tripoli,  132 

Tucker,  Rev.  H.  C.,  320,  325, 
326 

Tumbez,  89 
Turkey,  180,  226 

United  States,  15,  30,  43,  44, 
49,  50,  53,  75,  91,  137,  147, 
158,  159,  162,  191,  196,  203, 


218,  229,  258,  260,  268,  272, 
274,  281,  286,  288,  289,  296, 
299,  306,  308,  309,  319,  327, 
331,  332 

University  of  California,  177 
Uruguay,  13,  191,  194,  214-220, 
225-227,  229,  257,  288,  299, 
321,  328 

Uruguay  River,  191,  204 
Utah,  131,  203 


Valdivia,  Don  Pedro  de,  149, 
174 

Valparaiso,  13,  19,  59-62,  150, 
152,  154,  159,  165-174,  181, 
198,  288,  290-293,  325 
Val verde,  Friar  Vicente  de,  20 
Venezuela,  15,  18,  21,  24,  48,  56, 
263-270,  272,  274,  295,  296, 
306,  308,  320 
Venice,  265 
Veragua,  28 
Vermont,  114 
Verrugas  Bridge,  103 
Vespucci,  Amerigo,  231 
Victoria,  205 

Victoria  Gospel  Press,  327 
Victoria  Sailors’  Home,  326 
Villegagnon,  Nicholas,  234 
Virginia,  174 

Waking,  Colonel,  52 
Washington,  George,  21,  266 
Watson,  Rev.  J.  S.,  89,  282, 
323 

Wenburg,  Rev.  J.  H.,  325 
Williamstown,  322 
Wilmington,  Del.,  100,  123,  258, 
288 

Windward  Islands,  264 
Wood,  Dr.  Thomas  B.,  332 
Worcester,  288 

Xavier,  Francis,  233,  312 


Yorkshire,  260 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  327 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  327 
Yucay,  70 


CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  AMERICA 


The  Continent  of  Opportunity :  south  America 

Illustrated,  $1.50  net-  FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  D-D. 

Covers  practically  every  centre  of  social  and  economic 
importance  in  South  American  continent,  Panama,  Chile, 
Ecuador,  Peru,  Argentine,  Brazil,  Paraguay  and  Uruguay. 
Dr.  Clark’s  prime  object  was  to  collect  information  of  every 
sort  that  would  help  the  rest  of  the  world  to  understand  the 
problems  now  facing  Christian  civilization  on  our  sister  Con¬ 
tinent. 


Latin  America 

Illustrated,  $1.20  net.  HUBERT  W.  BROWN,  M  A. 

The  Pagans,  Papists,  Patriots,  Protestants  and  the  Present 
Problem.  Thus  alliteratively,  yet  very  exactly,  is  the  course 
of  history  in  Latin  America  outlined.  “Supplies  a  positive 
want,  inasmuch  as  nothing  has  yet  appeared  covering  the 
field  with  such  intimate  knowledge.” — The  Outlook. 


The  Bible  in  Brazil 

Illustrated,  izmo,  Cloth,  $1.25  net.  HUGH  C.  TUCKER 

“Neglected”  as  the  Continent  of  South  America  has  been 
politically,  still  more  is  it  “ terra  incognita”  spiritually.  This 
book  consisting  chiefly  of  narrative  of  colporteur  experiences, 
lifts  the  veil  somewhat  and  gives  glimpses  of  the  country 
and  its  people,  together  with  the  efforts  that  are  being 
faithfully  made  to  reach  all  with  the  message  of  the  Gospel. 


GENERAL 


Fellow  Travelers 

Illustrated,  Cloth,  $1.23.  FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  D.D 

“A  personally  conducted  tour  by  ‘Father  Endeavorer,’ 
in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa,  with  impressions  of  Men,  Things 
and  Events,”  particularly  Egypt,  India  and  the  Republics  of 

South  Africa. 


Child  Life  in  Many  Lands 

H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL,  D.D.,  Editor 

Illustrated,  i2mo.  Cloth,  $1.00  net. 

“More  than  twenty  different  writers  contribute  their  im¬ 
pressions  of  child  life  in  lands  in  which  they  have  traveled 
(among  them  Mexico,  Brazil,  Japan,  China,  India.  Persia, 
Syria,  Madagascar,  Congo,  Greenland,  etc.). — C.  B.  World. 


HOME  MISSIONS 


On  the  Trail  of  the  Immigrant 

EDWARD  A.  STEINER 

Illustrated,  i2mo,  Cloth,  $1.50  net. 

Unquestionably  there  is  no  one  problem  that  faces  the 
Churches  of  the  United  States  more  intense,  more  important 
than  that  of  dealing  with  the  influx  of  foreigners.  Of  alien 
birth  and  strange  language,  unaccustomed  to  our  methods, 
unacquainted  with  our  ideals,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that 
many  are  dismayed.  To  all  such  Ihis  book  will  be  a  tonic, 
describing,  as  it  does,  the  people  in  their  homes,  on  the 
way  over,  and  meeting  the  new  conditions.  Slav,  German, 
Scandinavian,  Italian,  Jew,  Greek,  all  pass  in  view,  and  the 
keen  pen  registers  the  verdict  of  the  unerring  insight  of  a 
man,  an  immigrant  himself,  loyal  to  his  own  country,  be¬ 
lieving  in  it  with  his  whole  soul. 


The  Fortune  of  the  Republic 

NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS,  D.D. 

i2mo,  Cloth,  $1.20  net. 

The  time  has  long  gone  by  when  Home  Missions  were  con¬ 
ceived  to  be  confined  to  Sunday  services.  The  making  of 
a  citizen  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  church’s  work  as  the 
making  of  a  communicant.  Indeed,  the  one  should  imply 
the  other.  The  book  by  the  gifted  successor  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  and  Lyman  Abbott,  is  built  on  the  broader  plan, 
and  shows,  as  no  other  book  has  shown,  “The  True  Solution 
of  Social  Problems,”  in  “The  America  of  To-morrow.” 


Our  People  of  F oreign  Speech 

i6mo,  Cloth,  50c  net.  SAMUEL  McLANAHAN 

“For  those  who  are  interested  in  the  study  of  races  this 
book  will  prove  valuable.  The  author  has  gathered  together 
statistics  and  information  concerning  the  many  peoples  that 
are  becoming  so  large  a  factor  in  American  life.  There  is  a 
fund  of  information  contained  in  this  little  volume  that  those 
interested  in  the  religious  and  socialistic  problems  of  the  day 
•will  do  well  to  avail  themselves  of.” — Presbyterian  Banner. 


The  Incoming  Millions 

HOWARD  B.  GROSE,  D.D. 

i2mo,  Paper,  30c  net;  Cloth,  50c  net. 

The  study  of  the  wider  problems  of  Home  Missions  is 
being  more  and  more  recognized,  and  this  volume,  in  the 
Inter-denominational  Missionary  Course,  is  one  of  the  best. 


At  Our  Own  Door 

S.  L.  MORRIS,  D.D. 

Illustrated,  i2mo,  Paper,  35c  net;  Cloth,  $1.00  net. 

j  A  Study  of  Home  Missions,  with  special  reference  to 
the  South  and  West,  by  the  Secretary  of  the  General  Assem¬ 
bly’s  Home  Missions,  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S. 


Date  Due 


'mu  a  id 

$r  • 

tor  3  0  ’4/ 

L 

A  0  v 

*  i» 

Ap  2  ’4 

a 

'  }  •’/>  n 

MR  lb ’4 

§ 

<f> 

F2223 .C59 

The  continent  of  opportunity  :  the  South 

S?minary-Speer  Letora 


1  1012  00071-2770. 


